Seatrade awards recognise anti-piracy actions

The awards were presented by guest of honour HRH The Princess Royal, who reminded those present that over 600 seafarers were currently being held hostage by Somali pirates. She said she had experienced the problem first-hand recently in the Seychelles, where the hijacking of a gas carrier had threatened to deprive the islands of an important energy resource, and was impressed by the way the local community had handled the situation. Nevertheless, despite this local success, she felt piracy was an international problem that demands an international solution.

The ceremony began with the customary four technology awards, decided from a large number of nominations by a judging panel. The first, for Safety at Sea, went to Dutch company Nadiro, for its ‘drop-in ball’ lifeboat hook system. Other shortlisted entries were the Datic Marine and P-Trap anti-piracy devices, and the AIS SART from McMurdo. The Clean Shipping award had a shortlist of three – exhaust gas treatment systems from Aalborg Industries and Couple Systems alongside the eventual winner, Marinfloc of Sweden’s Enviropilot system to monitor waste discharge. The Innovation in Ship Operation award went to APM Terminals of The Netherlands, while the Investor in People category was won by Royal Caribbean Cruises.

Ulstein CEO Gunvor Ulstein was a worthy and popular winner of the first of the personal awards, given to the most prominent young person in shipping. A special award for actions in countering piracy went to UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, and was accepted on his behalf by his counterpart in IMO. Another award, to honour seafarers endangered by piracy, was accepted by David Cockcroft, general secretary of the International Transport Workers Federation. The China Development Bank won the global performer award, and the lifetime achievement award went to Paul J Ionnidis of the Alexander Onassis Federation. The 2011 Seatrade personality of the year was presented to shipowner Gianluigi Aponte, founder of MSC.

The awards concluded with presentations to IMO secretary general Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, who has been associated with the awards since their inception, and whose term of office ends in 2011, and to the Princess Royal.