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This Week in Maritime Regs: A Fourth Chemical Accident Report, a Sexual Misconduct Reporting Notice, and the UK's Emissions Trading Scheme Goes Live for Shipping

🕑 5 min read words Regulatory

Five UK Notices in One Week — Medical Certification and Life-Saving Appliances Both Move

The UK released five updates this week, two of them worth actually reading rather than filing. MSN 1815 (M+F) Amendment 7 updates the list of countries whose medical certificates are recognised as equivalent to a UK ENG1 — relevant the moment a crew change involves a certificate issued outside the UK. MSN 1905 (M+F) Amendment 5 revises the required list of ships' medical stores — check your vessel's medical locker inventory against the new list before your next port state inspection, not after. Separately, MGN 718 (M+F) implements the 2026 IMO amendment to the Provisions and Servicing of Life-Saving Appliances (PSSR) — a direct change to LSA servicing requirements, worth a read for anyone responsible for lifeboat/liferaft/EPIRB servicing schedules. The other two — MGN 381 Amendment 1 (air pollution survey and certification) and MGN 470 Amendment 3 (the running index of MLC-related notices) — are more administrative but still worth a scan if either touches your vessel's certification.

A New Reporting Requirement, Handled Carefully

The US Coast Guard released MSIB 03-26 this week, covering the reporting of sexual misconduct and harassment on US vessels. This is a welfare and reporting-pathway notice, not a procedural technicality — if you're unsure how or where to report a concern like this on a US-flagged vessel, or want to understand what protections exist for whoever does, this is the notice that spells it out. Crew Connect's own Safe Harbour tool exists for exactly this kind of situation when a formal reporting pathway feels like too big a first step.

Alternative Fuels Keep Showing Up in Training Requirements, Not Just Engine Rooms

Hong Kong released interim guidelines this week on training seafarers for ships using methyl/ethyl alcohol and ammonia as fuel — two separate fuel types, two separate interim training frameworks, both new. This is becoming a pattern worth watching, not a one-off: as alternative-fuel newbuilds enter service faster than STCW's own table amendments can formally catch up, flag states are increasingly issuing their own interim training guidance in the gap. If your next contract involves a newbuild running on anything other than conventional fuel oil, check whether your flag state (or the vessel's) has issued equivalent interim guidance before you sign on.

Cargo Securing CIC: Now Confirmed by Seven Different Organisations in One Week

Panama, Liberia, the Indian Register of Shipping, Britannia, Japan P&I, London P&I and UK P&I Club all published their own separate confirmation this week of the same thing: the Tokyo and Paris MOUs' joint Concentrated Inspection Campaign on Cargo Securing of Cargo Units and Cargo Transport Units runs 1 September to 30 November 2026. Seven separate organisations flagging the same three-month window in the same week is not routine noise — it's the industry's collective way of saying this one is real and PSCOs will actually be checking for it. We've already built a full walkthrough of the joint questionnaire and what's detainable — read it here if you haven't already, and check it against your vessel's actual Cargo Securing Manual before September, not during an inspection.

The UK's Emissions Trading Scheme Extends to Shipping

Gard flagged this week that the UK has extended its Emissions Trading Scheme to cover shipping — a compliance-cost and reporting change that lands on top of the EU's own ETS shipping rules already in force. If your vessel trades into UK ports and you haven't checked whether UK ETS obligations now sit alongside (not instead of) EU ETS ones, this is the week to check, not the week the first invoice arrives.

Worth a Shorter Mention

IIMS published two items worth knowing about: a new report on the impacts of GNSS interference on maritime safety (a live, worsening problem in several of the same chokepoints covered by this week's security bulletins), and guidance on installing lithium-ion batteries safely on smaller craft. Liberia issued fresh Marine Security Bulletins on vessel attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and multiple attacks in the Black Sea — if your next voyage touches either area, treat both as current briefing material. And on the P&I side, Britannia published a Panama Canal draft restriction update and guidance on ship-to-ship operations for non-tankers — both worth a read before your next transit or STS job.

Two Real Investigation Reports This Week

Germany's BSU and the US NTSB both released full investigation reports this week — a chemical mixing accident aboard the LNG tanker Coralius that seriously injured a motorman, and a fatal collision in the Houston Ship Channel caused by a pilot's 39-minute personal phone call and a bridge team that never challenged it. Both get the full treatment, including a Decision Simulator scenario: Coralius — the chemical store decision and Yangze 7 and Miss Peggy — the pilot's phone call.

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