Belize flag registry receives praise from U.S. Coast Guard

Belize flag registry receives praise from U.S. Coast Guard    A senior U.S. Coast Guard official praised the leadership of the International Merchant Marine Registry of Belize in Washington Thursday for its work during the past five years to root out substandard vessel operators from its membership.
   'Throughout the remainder of 2004 and during 2005, I saw that the performance of vessels registered in Belize was indeed improving and that Belize would soon remove itself from our targeted list for PSC (Port State Control),' said Commander Paul D. Thorne, chief the Coast Guard's foreign vessel and offshore activities.
   He said he was 'not surprised' the Belize flag registry would qualify for the Coast Guard's Quality Shipping for the 21st Century (QUALSHIP 21) award earlier this year, since detentions of Belize-flagged vessels in U.S. ports had dropped off to well below 1 percent.
   To qualify for QUALSHIP 21 status, flag states must average at least 10 distinct U.S. arrivals a year and have a three-year running detention rate of 1 percent or less, Thorne explained.
   The cleanup within the Belize flag registry has been credited to Director General Angelo Mouzouropoulos, who took over the registry's administrative role in 2001 after serving 25 years in ship management with Hamburg Sud.
   Mouzouropoulos said he's concerned that substandard vessel operators displaced from the Belize registry are still plying the seas under more accepting flag registries. 'Flag hopping is taking place everywhere,' he said.
   He said it's important for the International Maritime Organization to audit flag states. 'This will go a very long way to clean up the registries,' Mouzouropoulos told Shippers' NewsWire in an interview.
   Internationally, as a result of the improvements, Belize was placed on the 'Grey List' of the Paris MOU this year along with registries such as Panama, Japan, and Russia. 'At the current rate of improvement, we expect to be in their White List in 2008,' Mouzouropoulos said in a speech.
   Some of the Belize registry's largest merchant vessel members are Tidewater Marine, V Ships and Marine Tankers, in addition to numerous smaller containership operators which ply the feeder trades. Mouzouropoulos said the registry consists of about 600 cargo vessels.