IMCA is introducing a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme for Diving Supervisors. Following a successful pilot of the scheme, we are currently preparing for the Diving Supervisors' Scheme and App to go live.  

You may recall that this will be voluntary during 2020 and from Q1 2021 will be a mandatory requirement to maintain IMCA Certification.

Pre-registration Open - To prepare for the launch of the scheme you can now pre-register to allow the Certification Team to verify your registration and prepare your User Account in advance of the 31 March launch date. 

Read on to find out more about the Scheme and the successful trial phase.

Web-based submission of 2019 IMCA Contractor members’ Safety Statistics has been open since January. The closing date is April 3. Submit your data at imca-int.com/data/safety/submit.

IMCA has been collecting and publishing industry safety statistics since 1997 with the data-set containing anonymised submissions from our contractor members worldwide. 

There is no doubt that COVID-19 is having a significant impact on activities around the world. We would like to remind Members of the various Safety Flashes issued relating to COVID-19 - they can be found on our website:

• Coronavirus Outbreak
• Joint Statement IMO-WHO on response to COVID-19 Outbreak
• Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on Singapore Registered Ships
• Statement on COVID-19 - UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation 

We will continue to keep you informed as and when updated information is available.  Our team will remain operational through remote working should the situation arise.

In consideration of travel restrictions being adopted by many of our Member companies, and in order to minimise risk, uncertainty and potential costs for our members, we have taken precautionary measures to cancel two technical seminars scheduled to take place early in June. The Lifting & Rigging and Competence & Training Committees will review their plans for holding these events at a later date.

Additionally, we have made the decision to change the format of our scheduled face to face regional meetings between now and the end of June. These meetings will now take the form of webinars which will enable us to keep our members up to date with our activities.

We will continue to monitor the situation and will update Members accordingly. For the time being, we continue to plan for our flagship event in London in early October.

Please contact our events team at events@imca-int.com if you have any queries.

As you know, IMCA’s work is primarily undertaken through our extensive committee and workgroup structure. A number of elections for committee membership are scheduled for 2020. Details relating to elections for specific committees will be communicated to Members.

• Opportunities to participate via the committees and workgroups are communicated to our Membership.
• Elections are held and committee appointments made in accordance with IMCA's governance documents.
• Elections results will be communicated to Members and posted on our website.

Reza Yaghoobi, IMCA Technical Adviser - Marine, tells us that in recent years, there has been a great awareness and inclination towards reducing emissions and improving fuel efficiency across the marine industry. 

At the same time there has been a great demand for new sources of energy, ultimately leading to zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The aim of the 2030 and 2050 emissions targets established by IMO is to reduce total GHG emissions from international shipping in order to achieve the levels of ambition established by the Paris Climate Agreement.

The IOGP Geomatics Committee has released Report 624-01 – Common Industry Technical Specification for the Calibration and Verification of Ultra Short Baseline (USBL) Positioning Systems. 

Our publications are available to our Members free of charge and can be downloaded or ordered via our website. The latest 2020 publications include:

• Station Keeping Incidents Reported for 2019
• Guidance on verifier training
• Plastic spherical air-filled fishing buoys
• Guidance on Competence assurance and assessment: Marine roles for small workboats
• Guidance on the use of simulators

Our Publications Catalogue is available online - visit our website. 

Contact our Publications Team by emailing publications@imca-int.com

Our client and member engagement team actively supports the Association in developing and expanding engagement with oil companies and across the broader industry. The team represents us in business activities in their respective regions and participates in IMCA regional meetings and other events. Read on to find out more about the team.

For the time being we continue to plan for our flagship event in Central London on 6 a‌nd 7 O‌cto‌ber 2‌0‌2‌0. Details will follow in due course. Should you have any queries please contact events@imca-int.com

In early February we participated in the Under Water Intervention Conference in New Orleans and the International Diving Industry Forum (IDIF) with both IOGP and ADCI. This was the first anniversary of the Forum and we are making very good progress on a range of technical and operational issues in a great spirit of cooperation.

In mid February we participated in Subsea Expo in Aberdeen with a pavilion stand which proved a popular venue for our members to meet and network with industry colleagues (pictured here and in the gallery above).

We also had a significant presence at the European DP Conference and OSJ flagship events in London through speakers and participating in a couple of roundtables.

With COVID-19 resulting in ever more restricted travel, we successfully completed our Asia-Pacific regional event, which had been scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur, by webinar from London. The system worked well and of course our event planning this year will be kept under close scrutiny, and we will adapt and change as necessary.

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