The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FREEPORT – Minister of Transport and Aviation Glenys Hanna-Martin has responded to claims made by an official at the International Maritime Pilots’s Association concerning the safety of pilotage in the Bahamas. She says the country has a remarkable maritime safety record overall.

Nick Cutmore, Secretary General of IMPA, told the 22nd IMPA Congress in Panama on Monday of inadequacies in the pilotage industry in the Bahamas.

He said: “It was much to my surprise…to find in the Bahamas’ own backyard as far as pilotage is concerned, dismal standards, no oversight, commercial expediency, a long list of accidents, and just plain stupidity.”

“We have taken careful note of the tone and the content of recent comments regarding the safety of pilotage in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The words have been intemperate and the allegations inaccurate,” said Minister Hanna-Martin in a statement to The Tribune.

“The Bahamas as a major Maritime Administration has consistently advocated safety, security, quality and the protection of the marine environment, a fact that is borne out by the exemplary safety record of the Bahamas Flag fleet – one of the largest and most modern in the world,” she said.

Ms Hanna-Martin indicated that many of the best known shipping names in the world choose to fly the Bahamas’ flag on some of the modern ships in the world. She stated that the country’s flag flies on the largest passenger fleet in the world, the largest fast ferry fleet in the world, and major shipowners of quality flag their vessels with the Bahamas because the country is known as an administration that advocates and delivers quality in maritime safety and service.

The minister also said the Bahamas has played an active, proactive and productive leadership role at the International Maritime Organization, which is a United Nations agency responsible for the formulation of maritime safety regulations worldwide.

She stressed that the country has proposed and championed major initiatives at the IMO which have been beneficial to maritime safety in the Bahamas and around the world.

“The Bahamas has consistently and diligently promoted, implemented and adhered to conventions and regulations promulgated at the IMO, of which the Bahamas has been a member since 1976 and a Council member for many years.”