A security incident hits a passenger ship in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – an important port receiving more than 140 passenger ships and hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Procedures need to be followed and numerous national agencies need to be coordinated. This was the subject of one of the drills and exercises that took place during an IMO workshop in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (7 September) involving more than 100 participants from different port facilities in the Americas region.
The workshop also included a table-top simulation describing the procedures contained in the APEC Manual of Maritime Security Drills and Exercises for Port Facilities. More information about the live security exercise, conducted by the Mexican Navy (SEMAR), can be found here (Spanish only).
Regular maritime security drills and exercises are an important requirement under IMO’s International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code. The Code helps to ensure the effective implementation of the ship and port facility security plans and to verify that personnel involved are aware of the relevant procedures and can respond in a timely and effective manner.
The Puerto Vallarta event comes as part of part of IMO’s focus on the 2017 World Maritime Day theme “Connecting Ships, Ports and People” to help IMO Member States to develop and implement maritime strategies to invest in a joined-up, interagency approach to key issues. The workshop was conducted as part of the XI International Forum on Maritime and Port Security (4-7 September), in collaboration with the Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP) of the Organization of the American States (OAS) and SEMAR. IMO was represented by Javier Yasnikouski and a team of consultants.