Maritime Risk International
Problem solving through Covid-19 and beyond
Roger Evans, of the International Salvage Union, provides an assessment of the state of the marine salvage industry
The worldwide coronavirus has caused huge issues and challenges to the shipping industry. Members of the International Salvage
Union (ISU), many of which are shipowners and employ their own seafarers, have been affected and salvage operations have been
made more complex logistically. There have been concerns about delay when salvage teams have been forced by quarantine requirements
to wait – in some cases for weeks – before being able to proceed to a job, or to de-mobilise, and travel restrictions have
made crew changes difficult. The IMO has campaigned for seafarers to be nominated as “key workers” to enable them to move
more freely which ISU supports.