COLUMN | Dark times at sea: piracy, rogue tankers and other pressing maritime security issues [Grey Power]

It seemed it was only a few years ago that the good guys were winning in the watery world of maritime safety.

Casualties were declining in number (if increasing in individual cost) and standards were improving, with proper implementation of international regulations. Whole industry sectors, such as the tankers, were seen as exemplars of excellence and others were clearly hoping to drive up their own standards of safety and efficiency.

True, the bottom feeders that had always been a blot on the maritime world traded on, but one had the impression that they were better policed and either regulated, or perhaps shamed, to up their game a little.

Today, in contrast, there would seem to be a growing lawlessness at large in the maritime world, whether it is an increase in violent piracy, criminality, and the sizeable scandal of the sanction-busting “dark fleet,” with its cavalier and often dangerous behaviour. Iran’s pirate satrapy in Yemen may have graciously released the wretched crew of the car carrier Galaxy Leader, held hostage for more than a year, but for a modest investment, they have succeeded in causing huge harm to both human lives and the economies of civilised countries. To that extent, it might be suggested that they have won.

They continue to issue their “conditions” for a passage of the Red Sea, so it can be no surprise that responsible carriers are maintaining their stance on diversions around the Cape.

Elsewhere, the various piracy “hot spots” remain a concern, with new warnings about attacks in the Singapore Straits and a possible resurgence of Somali piracy. There is the new menace of hybrid warfare in the cable cutters and AIS spoofers. We have also been reminded that abandonment of ships, with their unpaid crews, has been at record levels. Small wonder, among all this risk and danger, there is a growing reluctance, if there are alternatives on offer, to seek a career at sea.

But the behaviour of those whose ships comprise what has become known as the “dark fleet” carrying the cargoes of Russia, Venezuela and Iran have demonstrated a widespread and worrying willingness to dispense with legal and ethical behaviour. It has also shown, once again, a shameful facet of shipping that has never gone away, as a vehicle for the unprincipled, the money launderers, the financial finaglers, and quick buck merchants, who in a different era, we used to call spivs.

And once again, their behaviour has been facilitated by the toleration of the whole industry in its failure to address its timeless lack of transparency and the maze of obfuscation that shelters those ultimately responsible for the ownership and operation of a ship behind brass plates, single-ship entities, non-existent companies and all the legalistic flim-flam of company registration in dubious places on the planet.

It might be suggested that the greatest facilitator of shameful behaviour may be found in the offices of those operating ship registers. We were often warned that we should not employ the term “flags of convenience”, because many of these “open registers” operated to high standards, but too many of these countries today, whether micro-states or grim third-world dictatorships, have become flags of irresponsibility, happily taking the money and colluding in criminality.

They all are members of the International Maritime Organisation, allegedly subscribing to its various conventions, but continue to register ships that are uninsured, sanctioned, falling to bits through a lack of proper maintenance, and that routinely flout international safety regulations. Their behaviour diminishes the reputation of a whole industry, when it shows that the “system” somehow allows these blackguards to continue their bad practices.

It is thoroughly wilful, because the IMO, through its technical assistance programmes, has excellent schemes that will assist struggling flags to raise their standards and no longer need to hawk their registration services around among the unprincipled.

The fact is that these dubious flags just don’t care about black lists or grey designations or their positions on well meaning auditing systems. They have been corrupted by their putative customers and the whole industry suffers as a result.