Effect of Training on Shipboard Oil Pollution Violations

This paper will discuss how industrialization has brought both comforts and catastrophes. In the regular scheme of technological developments, the worst situation faced by man is the defiling of the environment. Shipping, being a heavily regulated industry, has contributed less in comparison to other land based polluters. But the enormity of an oil spill and the post-spill clean-ups are reasons enough for countries to tighten pollution laws. The paper describes how ships are being detained and penalized for pollution violations. Environmental concerns and criminalizing incidents have become major issues of concern. While considering these view points, a worthwhile approach would be to look at the seafarer training. Assessment of the competency of the shipboard officer is largely carried out by observations and onboard assessments and this could be extended to other means such as research surveys. This paper projects inputs from a study that was undertaken to assess the level of training and awareness in pollution matters among shipboard officers. The representative sample for the study was largely drawn from the Malaysian seafaring officers and also the Indian officers for better representation of the worldwide officers. Typical training syllabi were compared to suggested lesson plans, survey results were analyzed by statistical methods to verify framed hypotheses on pollution violations and human factors such as experience, attitude and fatigue were researched.