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April 2012 www.sname.org/sname/mt e ISM Code: History and Hype Cutting through the confusion surrounding the standard Many questions surround the International Safety Management (ISM) Code. For exam- ple, when did it come into existence? To whom does it apply? When did it become a regula- tion? Why are there so many complaints about it? Three years after the United Nations (U.N.) was established in 1945, the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) convention was adopted by UN Members to address safety standards in international shipping, long considered one of the worlds most dan- gerous occupations. e vagaries of the seas and weather compounded the diculties in making shipping safer for the men and women that plied the waters in the name of commerce and exploration. One of the primary missions of IMCO was to create a universal body of harmonized regula- tions and standards whereby ships would be constructed, manned, and operated safely. In 1982, IMCO became the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which is now comprised of 155 Members. A lot of varying standards had been developed by the many countries with shipping eets: Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, the United States, and so on. e sinking of Titanic in 1912 was the galvanizing shipping disaster that, with its associated public out- cry, brought about the adoption of the rst International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea, known as SOLAS. is rst International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) dealt with hardware issues such as con- struction, and reghting, lifesaving, and radiotelegraph equipment standards. Other shipping disasters such as Doña Paz (1987), Mont Blanc (1917), Toya Maru (1954), Estonia (1994), Herald of Free Enterprise (1987), Morro Castle (1934), Andrea Doria (1956), Derbyshire (1980), and Edmund Fitzgerald (1975) resulted in more than 10,500 deaths, loss of ships and cargos, and environmen- tal damage. ese disasters contributed to the maturation of SOLAS from a hardware-related standard to one that addressed soft issues such as management, policies, pro- cedures, and continual improvement. In 1989, the IMO adopted a resolution entitled Guidelines on Management for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention. is convention was further amended and adopted by the IMO in 1994 as the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention, known as the ISM Code. e ISM Code was made mandatory by a new chapter IX in SOLAS, entitled Management for the Safe Operation of Ships. The ISM Code was implemented in two stages. The first compliance date was July 1, 1998 for all passenger ships, oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers, bulk car- riers, and cargo high-speed craft of 500 gross tons and over. ese vessels were considered the highest risks to person- nel, property, and the environment. All other cargo ships and mobile o shore drilling units of similar tonnage were required to comply with the ISM Code by July 1, 2002. A par- ticularly unique feature of ISM Code certication of ships was the requirement that the companies that operated the ships were also required to obtain ISM Code certication. Shore-side management and shipboard management and crewmembers were now partnered through certication. Broad terms versus speci?city e ISM Code as a management system focuses on safety and pollution prevention. ere are 16 discrete elements (or topics) associated with the standard. In essence, the BY KIM PARKER