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• Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) has issued a marine notice no. 5-034-5 regarding measures to improve compliance in United States Ports.

• Salient points of the notice are as follows:

1. All vessels calling US ports are required to submit the Notice of Arrival (NOA) to United States Coast Guard (USCG) 96 hours prior to entering US waters. The NOA is required to include proactive listing of any non-operational equipment or system onboard vessel.

2. Copy of NOA is to be submitted to the Administrator notifying about the list of any inoperative equipment or system.

3. Failure to listing on NOA may result in immediate International Safety Management (ISM) audit of the vessel operator and/or warning letter or safety reprimand to Master and/or chief engineer.

4. Repeated failure to report non-operational equipment or systems may results in suspension of the Master’s and Chief Engineer’s RMI seafarer documents and/or an additional audit of the vessel or Company SMS.

5. In addition to NOA; the completed and signed critical items checklist (RMI Form MSD 340) is to be submitted to the Administrator at NOA@register-iri.com .

6. Failure to comply with above requirement may cause suspension of the Master’s and Chief Engineer’s RMI seafarer documents and/or an additional audit of the vessel or Company SMS.

7. In case vessel is calling consecutive ports in US, the critical item checklist is to be submitted prior to the first US port; provided that the condition of the vessel does not change during these ports.

8. In case vessel is detained in US ports then

• An immediate Special Inspection by the Administrator is required prior to sailing to determine the root cause of the detention ;

• An additional survey by the RO for any and all statutory certificates that were the subject of the deficiency(ies) causing the vessel to be detained; and

• Where an ISM deficiency resulted in the detention, an ISM audit of the SMS onboard the vessel will be required prior to sailing and the scope of audit will be specified by the Administrator.

9. Any ISM Company whose vessel has been detained in a US port is required

• To submit a corrective action plan to address the underlying root cause of the substandard condition or conditions which resulted in the detention of the vessel; and,

• To undergo an immediate audit of the Company’s Document of Compliance (DOC) and scope of which will be as specified by the Administrator.

• Ship owners / operators and masters are advised to be guided by above.

Enclosure:

1. RMI Notice MN 5-034-5
2. RMI Form MSD 340

Disclaimer:

This Technical Circular and the material contained in it is provided only for the purpose of supplying current information to the reader and not as an advice to be relied upon by any person. While we have taken utmost care to be as factual as possible, readers/ users are advised to verify the exact text and content of the Regulation from the original source/ issuing Authority.

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