After the casualty of M/T "ERIKA"- 25years old, 35,000dwt tanker broken in two parts and eventually sank off the coast of Brittany on December 12, 1999, the main criticism of PSC broke out due to that the established safety net of inspections by the flag State, port State, industry and classification society failed to keep their safety nets.

Following the M/T "ERIKA" incident, there has been gradual trend among port Authorities to implement more rigorous PSC inspections to prevent environmental pollution and to maintain the safety of vessels. And as one of these tough measures, MOUs have recently developed new regimes such as strict target matrix, target system and European Quality of Shipping Information System (EQUASIS) in order to identify and eliminate sub-stands vessels.

Although MOU is understood as having an important role to prevent a marine pollution, the MOU is not an international convention and has no official status within the International Maritime Organization (technical). However, the agreement on port State control has certainly had an impact on international rule making in the technical. Also, since the conventions usually require lengthy ratification procedures and similar problems when there is a need for conventions to be amended, a MOU has been established instead of a convention.

Aims of PSC

All countries have the right to inspect ships of foreign flags visiting their ports to ensure that they meet technical requirements regarding safety and marine pollution prevention standards. Thus Port State Control is intended as a tool for any country to

• control safety standards,
• safeguard the own territory against hazards to safety and the environment
• to keep substandard ships off their coast.

Following some disastrous groundings of tankers at European coastlines the European coastal countries started to discuss about a regional organization which led to an agreement called "MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING ON PORT STATE CONTROL" The agreement establishes rules for

• training of the inspectors,
• inspections on a common scope,
• general agreements on clear grounds for detaining a ship,
• a database system for exchanging information about inspected ships, number of ships to be inspected per country in relation to number of arriving ships.

Legal Background

The right to inspect ships by port states is laid down in following Conventions:

• SOLAS Convention 74/78
• MARPOL Convention 73/78
• Load line Convention 1966
• STCW Convention 1995
• Collision Prevention Regulations 1972
• International Tonnage Convention 1969
• ILO Convention Nr. 147 (crew accommodation)

Qualification of PSC Officers

The technical Resolution A.787(19) about guidelines for Port State Control states about the qualification as follows :

• the PSCO shall be an experienced officer able to communicate in English language with the key crew
• the PSCO shall be trained to have sufficient knowledge about the conventions and regulations relevant to the conduct of the Port State Control
• the PSCO checking operational requirements shall have seagoing experience in leading function onboard
• the PSCO shall be trained by seminars to update his knowledge