Top performer

The Bahamas has been confirmed as a top-performing flag state, achieving positive scores across all 19 categories of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS)’s 2020-2021 Flag State Performance Table. It scored highly for Port State Control records of ships that fly the Bahamian flag, its ratification of conventions, crew- and training-related reporting, age of fleet and attendance at IMO meetings. Other flag states provided fewer reports on seafarer wellbeing between 2020 and 2021 – a trend described by the ICS as a “casualty of the pandemic”. Only 42.9 per cent of the 2,004 reports requested by the International Labour Organization from governments in 2021 were granted, significantly down from the 70.7 per cent rate of 2020.