Maritime Safety
Shipping is perhaps the most international of all the world's great industries - and one of the most dangerous. It has always been recognized that the best way of improving safety at sea is by developing international regulations that are followed by all shipping nations.
IMO's first task when it came into being in 1959 was to adopt a new version of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (
SOLAS
), the most important of all treaties dealing with maritime safety.
IMO has also developed and adopted international collision regulations and global standards for seafarers, as well as international conventions and codes relating to search and rescue, the facilitation of international maritime traffic, load lines, the carriage of dangerous goods and tonnage measurement.
The Maritime Safety Committee is IMO's senior technical body on safety-related matters. It is aided in its work by a number of Sub-Committees:
Maritime Safety Sub-Committees
Carriage of Cargoes and Containers (CCC)
Ship Design and Construction (SDC)
Implementation of IMO Instruments (III)
Navigation, Communications and Search and Rescue (NCSR)
Human Element, Training and Watchkeeping (HTW)
Ship Systems and Equipment (SSE)
Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR)
Maritime Safety
Cargoes and Containers
Cargo Securing and Packing
Cargoes in bulk
Containers
Dangerous Goods in packaged form
Fire protection and life-saving appliances
Fire Protection
Life-saving appliances
Fishing Vessels
Safety of navigation
Automatic Identification Systems (AIS)
Electronic Nautical Charts (ENC) and Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS)
E-navigation
Hydrographic data, nautical charts and nautical publications
Long-range identification and tracking (LRIT)
Pilotage
Places of refuge
Preventing Collisions
Ships' Routeing
Standard Marine Communication Phrases
Vessel Traffic Services
Voyage Data Recorder (VDR)
Radiocommunications and Search and Rescue
Radiocommunications
Search and Rescue
Safety Regulations
Bulk Carriers
High-Speed Craft (HSC)
Oil Tankers
Passenger Ships
RO-RO Ferries
Wing in Ground (WIG) Craft
Safety Topics
Polar Code
Asbestos
Formal Safety Assessment
Goal-Based Standards
IGF Code
Integrated bridge systems
Protective Coatings
IMO seminar for MASS
Safe Mooring
Ship Design and Stability