Shipowners’ organisation, the Baltic and International Maritime Council (Bimco), is set to unveil a new reporting code designed to eliminate inconsistencies that currently produce significant differences in global statistics for piracy and hijackings.
The variation is particularly acute in South East Asia where recent publication of maritime crime figures met with conflicting reports from other organisations
Bimco is working on a set of guidelines which will aim to standardise the categories of piracy and armed robbery at sea.
“Once completed we will be asking all piracy reporting centres and ships to utilise the same category system which will simplify all future reports,” said Philip Tinsley, Bimco’s security manager. “
It is hoped that the document will be released by the end of this year, once it has received industry approval.
