On April 9, 2008 , Law firm «International Law Officers», CJS Company «Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, Ukraine, Odessa» and the Nautical Institute of Ukraine held the first seminar from the serious of «SAFETY OF NAVIGATION, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND SECURITY AT SEA», planed to be held in 2008 – 2012.

The seminar «Maritime accidents» took place in the conference hall of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, Ukraine, Odessa. There were more than 60 delegates at the seminar.
The representatives of the state and private organizations of the navigation safety, environmental protection, harbor masters, state maritime inspection, representatives of the Nautical Institute of Ukraine, the Association UkrPort and AMAU, maritime lawyers, maritime agencies, forwarding agents, surveyors, heads of the maritime transport enterprises, juridical departments of maritime transport enterprises and representatives of the mass media gathered to discuss the important subject – marine accidences, which were illustrated on the example of the Kerch accidents on November 2007.
The seminar was held by the following chairmen:
The Partner of the International Law Offices- Artur Nitsevych, CNI.
The Honorary Secretary of the Nautical Institute of Ukraine, the head of the ONMA Department of Safety & Security at Sea – professor Vladimir Torskiy, FNI.
Victor Lubchenko,CNI the Director of the Regional Administration in Ukraine of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RA RMRS) opened the round table with the welcoming speech. He emphasized the importance and necessity of such events.
Gennadiy Egorov, the General director of the Marine Engineering Bureau (MEB) presented the exhaustive report on the Kerch tragedy and informed the audience about execution of the distant salvage operation of «Volgoneft — 139». In his report Mr. Egorov rendered in details the tragic events on November 11, 2007 in the Kerch strait, as the result, four river — sea going vessels had been wrecked, age from 29 till 50 years. The speaker emphasized the necessity to accept effective measures to prevent such events in future. Report of the director of the MEB was fundamental and set pace for the further work of the round table.
Evgeniy Belobrov, D.M., the head of the Emergency Medical And Sanitary Reaction Group On Rescuing People During Accidents of Hazardous Cargo On Board And In Ports of the Institute spoke about «Problems of Safety and Survivability of Seamen in Investigation of Maritime Emergency of the m/v «VANESSA» at the Sea of Azov».
Maritime emergency mentioned in Belobrov report implied death of the crewmembers of the m/v «Vanessa» (the flag of Bulgaria) on January 3, 2008 at the Sea of Azov under the storm conditions. The search – rescue operation in that area was executed by trade vessels, maritime and port tugboats and helicopters. The impact of dangerous influence of hydro – meteorological conditions on seamen while searching at nights and people rescuing was noticed in the report. Critical moments of constructional, technical and technological collective methods of rescuing were emphasized as well. Practical recommendations on effectiveness increasing of medical issues during the organization of searching and rescuing, and investigation of wreck causes and people death, survivability and rendering of the urgent medical aid were elaborated.
Valery Chistyakov, Cand. Tech. Sc., director of the IIMS – International Institute of Marine Surveyors «MORSERVIS» in his report emphasized that during the execution of the surveying works in ports the situation with sending some cargoes the package of which was not up to the quality demanded during transportation of the present cargo, had recently become problematic, besides, there are problems with transportation and package of dangerous cargoes, cargoes containers, the contents of which cannot be checked up, all that influence on risks spreading and entails increasing of emergencies. Namely, Mr. Chistyakov pointed out that «all surveying works as for estimating of cargo fastening on board, its proper accommodation and packing in the containers should be performed according to the shipper applications by the surveyors of the national specialized organizations with issuing of the correspondent certificates and their transfer to the harbor masters office or the State Port Inspection.
Nikolay Melnikov, CNI the partner of the «International Law Offices», the expert on the Maritime Law reported on vessels collisions. The speaker stopped in details on the subject of collision, defined the term – it is an emergency contact of two or several vessels. What emergency accidents are collisions, at what circumstances the event happened, what to do if the collision happened, the actions of the master that are prescribed by the International Treaties. How and where the registration of collisions takes place, how to solve the problem on necessity to choice a place of requirements considera¬tion on indemnification, i. e. on the civil jurisdiction. And many other things: damages, disturbance of the vessel and cargo, relationships between ship owners and insurance company.
Arnold Nyrko — the Adviser on the commercial — legal issues of the Association UkrPort, reported «On Role and Place of Harbor master of the port». Mr. Nyrko mentioned again the role and place of the harbor master in the port structure and providing of navigation safety.
Evgeniy Prokhorov, the deputy head of the RA RMRS made a speech on «Classification Societies and Control of the Port State», in this report he gave a positive evaluation on the development of the opposition to the substandard shipping, i.e. that is not adequate to the safety rules of navigation. In conclusion, the speaker noted that only cooperative efforts of the Classification Societies and Control authorities of the port state can lead to reduction of vessels arrests and provide standards of navigation safety and environmental protection. Igor Lander, the President of Association of Mari¬time Agencies of Ukraine (AMAU) reported on role of the agent in providing of navigation safety.
Maritime agency service in its broad understanding as an assistance of the vessel administration during execution of all obligations in the port and protection of ship owner interests by his order and in his name is one of the most important services that is rendered during trading navigation. The problem of agency service perfection is the extremely actual all over the world. It is connected with sudden increasing in quan¬tity of transport cargoes, increasing of requirements to marine vessels, complication of inspection methods of state and equipment of the vessels, ecological, sanitary, radiating safety, and many other factors. The maritime agent remains important and extremely necessary in trading navigation and providing of navigation safety. The next to report was Andrey Ivanov, the General Director of the enterprise «Transship UK», London, the head of the companies group «Transship», who specified withdrawal from harbor masters membership and commercialization of the Ship Dispatching System and pilotage services as the disorganization of the safety navigation system existing for years. It was one of the main causes of the events on November, 11th, 2007. In support to the abovementioned there was presented the analysis of actions of the large enterprises – ship owners during the occurrence of maritime accidents for which the prevention of such accidents is planned work following the rules and norms prescribed by execution in such situations, and also corresponding to all safety norms of state and class of maintained vessels. Clearness of instructions execution, cooperative actions of port services, master of the vessel and crew, presence of modern techniques and absence of financial problems are the guarantee of safety and preservation of the vessel and crew.
Vladimir Repetey, MNI — the Director of the State Maritime Inspection of Shipping Safety, Captain reported on «Emergency Maritime Accidents in Kerch strait on November, 11-12th 2007».
His report was a perfect illustration of the causes and consequences of the tragedy.
Vladimir Repetey’s report contained detailed report and description of the vessels, weather conditions, analysis of emergency maritime accidents per day, the consequences of maritime accidents, quantity and kind of polluting substances, reasons of maritime accidents and investigation results of the Commission of the Ministry of Transport and Communication in Ukraine.
All speakers touched upon different problems of shipping safety and navigation, problems of survivability of seamen, lacks of emergencies liquidation methods in the transport sphere. There was a heated discussion during the work of the round table as the result of which it was defined the ambiguous and unfavorable conclusion if the situation with the vessels regarding the infringement of requirements of the classification societies, requirements non-fulfillment of the harbor masters, non-providing of safe conditions of shipping by the ship owners remains the same, then in the future the number of the maritime accidents will not decrease, because of fleet ageing – will increase. Consequently, the chairmen of the Round table decided to create a commission, the members of which became Evgenie Belobrov, Vladimir Torskiy, Arnold Nyrko and Alexander Balobanov the task of which became the development of offers and drawing up of the Final document, which would reflect offers and conclusions that were made by the delegates, summarizing the reasons of the tragically events in the Kerch strait.
Nowadays, it is continued the collection of recommendations that will be reflected in the document, which will be directed to the Ministry of Transport and Communication of Ukraine, the General Maritime Inspection and the Department of Sea and River Transport of Ukraine .
The organizing committee thanks mass media which covered this event: the information partner of the «International Law Offices» – the magazines «Navigation», «Sea Review’, «The Sea Truth», « The Maritime Education» and the Municipal Broadcasting Company «Krug», and other regional editions.