IHMA Congress 2020 goes virtual

With the theme, "The Next Wave – Navigating Towards the Digital Future, the 12th biennial Congress will be delivered virtually from 5 - 10 October, 2020.

As a result of the extraordinary situation resulting from the global Covid-19 outbreak and, in particular, the various public health measures and travel restrictions implemented by many jurisdictions around the world to fight propagation of the virus, IMPA has decided to postpone its biennial Congress in Cancun to 23 to 29 Mayr 2021.

Representatives of sea pilots from 24 nations organized in the European Maritime Pilots Association held their general meeting in Antwerp.

The operators of Egypt's Suez Canal say technical or human error could have caused a huge container ship to run aground. Engineers are working round the clock to refloat the Ever Given. The vessel has been blocking one of the world's busiest shipping lanes for the last five days. The chairman of the canal authority hopes a dredging operation will free the ship in the next few days.

All five crew of pilot vessel POLLUX PILOT VESSEL, Dutch Pilotage Service, came up with positive test after self-testing on 9 January 2022.

This report on incidents involving vessels under pilotage, is an update on that issued in 2006. The IG’s first report examined five years of data between 1999 and 2004.

Dublin Port Company (DPC) of Ireland has taken delivery of a new pilot boat from UK-based Goodchild Marine Services. DPC Dodder is the second pilot boat in a series to be built by Goodchild Marine for the same owner.

The European Maritime Pilots' Association (EMPA) has compiled a very good overview of current (and also country-specific) documents concerning the COVID-19 pandemic on its website. This page is updated regularly.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to the maritime supply chain and called for accelerated adoption of digital technologies in various aspects of maritime operations, including the area of maritime education and training (MET).