Understanding the Interrelation between the Safety of Life at Sea Convention and Certain IMO’s Codes

• Main Authors: David Guevara, Dimitrios Dalaklis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Gdynia Maritime University 2021-06-01
• Series: TransNav: International Journal on Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation
• Subjects: safety at sea; safety of life at sea (solas) convention; maritime autonomous surface ships (maas); international maritime organization (imo); imo’s codes; ism code; safety of navigation; navigational safety risk assessment
• Online Access: http://www.transnav.eu/files/Understanding the Interrelation between the Safety of Life at Sea Convention and Certain IMOs Codes,1130.pdf

Over the last few decades, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has very heavily utilized the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974 Convention as the main legal instrument (and implementation tool) concerning safety at sea for merchant vessels engaged in international trade. During this more than a century of existence and continuous improvement of the Convention, wide-ranging safety risks have been addressed via SOLAS and certain relevant “supporting” Codes, covering for example the issues of design, construction and equipment of ships, as well as paving the way for the introduction of a structured framework of operational procedures that ensures a high level of professional performance for the crew onboard those seagoing vessels (the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention-ISM Code) and even including human factors topics. Until this point in time, the IMO has developed the SOLAS Convention with fourteen (14) chapters that are covering all the main risks associated with shipping operations and are working in parallel with other related Conventions and Codes to enhance the level of safety at sea, under a holistic approach that is working under the principle of interrelation. This paper aims to briefly discuss SOLAS’ history of development and highlight just a few of those important risks that this Convention is addressing, with certain emphasis on the topic of “safety of navigation”. Apart from helping to understand the way this Convention and other IMO’s legal instruments are interrelated, it will also provide a few educated guesses about the “upcoming” challenges that in the near future should also be included into the scope of the SOLAS, with the topic of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MAAS) clearly standing out.