THE ASSESSMENT OF MARITIME SAFETY IN THE TURKISH STRAITS BASED ON THE PERFORMANCE OF FLAG STATES IN PORT STATE CONTROL REGIMES

The Turkish Straits are well known for theirs intensive maritime traffic. The average annual number of transit ships passing through this waterway is approximately 50000 and more than 100 flag states pass through it. Moreover, this waterway presents a navigational challenge owing to its inherent geographic and oceanographic characteristics. Also, sub-standard ships navigating in this region lead to an increased risk levels and pose a threat to the marine environment. Over the years, serious maritime accidents occurring in the straits region had resulted in losses of life and constituted environmental disasters. The high risk arising from maritime shipping in these regions had always endangered public health in the vicinity of the Turkish Straits. In this study, maritime safety in the Turkish Straits region had been assessed based on the performance in the Port State Control inspections of flag states passing through this region. For the assessment of the performance of passing flag states, detention and deficiency indices of these flag states were generated for the MOUs. According to these values, the risk level of these flag states had been determined by the weighted risk point methods. Hereby, in addition to the determination of the risk level of flag states, the relationships between the inspections of MOUs had been also discussed on the basis of both the detention and the deficiency rates of flag states.

Ship Deficiency Data of Port State Control to Identify Hidden Risk of Target Ship

In the new inspection regime (NIR) of port state control (PSC), the criteria for being judged as a standard risk ship (SRS) is too broad. Some ships are classified as SRS even though they have a large number of ship deficiencies. This paper develops a selection system to identify the hidden risk of target ships in the SRS category using PSC inspection records. This system allows the target ship to be used to help reduce cases of flags being greylisted or blacklisted, which can cause huge shipping losses. This study analyzes ship deficiency data in the Tokyo memorandum of understanding (Tokyo MoU) database. It adopts the multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) model as a data processing technique to build a risk assessment scale. It uses fuzzy importance performance analysis (F-IPA) and technology for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) for its analysis. Subsequently, the weights of F-IPA and TOPSIS are adopted into the MCDM model. This article also consulted the Tokyo MoU database. It has been verified that the next time PSC inspection, the system hits 83.3% of the hidden risk ships in the SRS category. Thus, this system will help inspectors be more insightful for target ships.

Cumulative Analysis of Port State Control Based on Paris MoU Inspections

The Port State Control (PSC) was established to control ships entering ports or coastal facilities under its jurisdiction, with inspections by PSC officers aiming to determine whether ships meet safety and pollution prevention requirements and comply with the standards prescribed under the relevant international conventions. Annual reports based on PSC’s inspection reports are published under each memorandum of understanding (MoU) regime. The detailed inspection reports within the scope of the PSC, that contain a variety of information about vessels, and the processing and sharing of such information with other regional MoUs are intended to reduce the number of non-conforming practices in the global maritime system. In addition, PSCs publish lists of black, gray and white (BGW) flags, with the classification depending on the number of ship deficiencies and detentions. The classification is an indication of the quality of national flags. When a ship is found to have deficiencies, the inspection takes longer, and when the deficiencies are serious, the vessel is detained. Detention periods mean financial losses for the operator and loss of reputation for the flag state. Hence, the lists of black, gray and white flags published by the regional regimes are important in terms of reflecting the reputation of different countries. For these purposes, in this study, the inspections and detentions under the Paris MoU in 2019 have been examined and analyzed by countries and regions. Countries are categorized by UN geographical regions. In particular, the goal of the study was to identify the flag countries of the most frequently inspected and detained ships in 2019, as well as to determine the strategic measures developed by the countries and establish their differences and similarities compared to inspections and detentions in 2018. In addition, the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 had a lockdown effect in the maritime domain and a profound effect on society, economy and health worldwide. The result of this study is the prediction of PSC efficiency in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of the pandemic on the order of countries in the flag lists.