All Sectors

This Week in Maritime Regs: Three Clubs Warn About Togo, a New Loss Prevention Podcast, and Aging Fiberglass Lifeboats

🕑 5 min read words Regulatory

Three Clubs, One Country, One Week: Togo

When three separate P&I clubs issue near-identical warnings about the same country in the same week, it's worth more than a skim. Japan P&I Club, London P&I, and NorthStandard all published guidance this week on the risk of bartering with local fishermen in Togolese waters — swapping ship's stores, fuel, or equipment for fish or other goods, a practice that's landed crews and owners with real fines and detention risk. It's an easy habit to slip into on a long port call and an easy one to stop: treat any informal exchange with small local craft alongside as a compliance question, not a goodwill gesture, and make sure it's covered explicitly in your port-call briefing for West African calls.

Gard: Iron Ore Fines and the Liquefaction Risk, Again

Gard published fresh precautions for vessels loading iron ore fines in India, a cargo that sits squarely in IMO Group A under the IMSBC Code — meaning it can liquefy and shift catastrophically if its moisture content is wrong. This isn't a new hazard, but it's a recurring one, and Gard's timing suggests current loading conditions in India are worth extra scrutiny this season: verify the Transportable Moisture Limit against an independently tested Certificate of Cargo, don't rely solely on a shipper-supplied figure, and hold the master's right to refuse loading if the numbers don't add up. Gard's companion piece this week — routing considerations around El Niño, Panama Canal restrictions and Cape Horn — is worth a read for anyone planning a passage through any of those three areas this quarter.

Fatigue at the Helm — a Second Case in Two Weeks

The Swedish Club's new Loss Prevention podcast, Knot Another Lesson, launched with a real case study worth flagging on its own: an officer of the watch falling asleep, examined through the club's usual claims-driven lens. It lands the same fortnight as MAIB's own Silver Cloud II investigation — two entirely separate sources, two different registries, the same underlying pattern. If your fleet's fatigue-management training hasn't been refreshed this year, this is a natural trigger to do it now rather than wait for a third case to make the point again.

Anchoring, Sanctions, and a US Lifeboat Alert

The American Club's latest "Good Catch" bulletin covers a near-miss from dropping anchor in the wrong spot — a reminder that anchor position planning deserves the same rigour as a berthing plan, not an afterthought once the pilot's aboard.
Iran sanctions tightened again this week: the American Club flagged OFAC's updated guidance on Strait of Hormuz transits and an expansion of sanctions to further Iranian economic sectors, and West separately warned of increased secondary sanctions risk for anyone operating in or near the Iranian shipping sector. If your trade touches the Gulf, treat this as current compliance reading, not background noise.
The US Coast Guard issued Safety Alert 12-26, urging operators to check the material condition of aging fiberglass lifeboats — UV degradation and gelcoat cracking can hide structural weakness that a routine visual check won't catch. Worth a proper hands-on inspection, not just a look from the deck, on any hull approaching or past its original design life.

Flag State and Class Items Worth Five Minutes

Liberia issued two updates: Marine Security Bulletin 32/2026 on vessel attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, and a revision to its long-running Red Sea/Gulf of Aden security advisory.
Marshall Islands released three revised Marine Notices covering statutory certificate issuance, shipboard marine pollution emergency plans, and life-saving/fire-fighting equipment for private yachts.
Malta updated its Flag State Inspection Programme notice and issued a fresh warning about unauthorised transmission of Maltese MMSI numbers.
Hong Kong released MSIN 8/2026 on the reporting of marine incidents.
Lloyd's Register issued four updates, including new guidance on welding procedures and a look at onboard carbon capture and storage — worth a read if your fleet has any newbuild or retrofit projects touching either area.
The Swedish Coast Guard vessel KBV 202's collision with the passenger vessel M/S Eckerö in Grisslehamn, first reported by SHK Sweden earlier this year, is a reminder that near-shore passenger routes carry collision risk that doesn't always make international headlines.

Test Your Knowledge

Think you've got this covered? Put it to the test in Crew Connect's free Knowledge Checker — try a quick cargo/compliance round and see how you score.