Moreover, the passage of time changed what regulators and shipowners saw as the purpose of lifeboats.
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With his blond hair and perfect English, Economou has led a flotilla of Greek shipowners to the U.S. capital markets.
These are areas in which the private sector (both shipowners and their security advisers) must play a role.
Officials have not confirmed this, but it would follow a wearily familiar pattern for shipowners using the waterway.
America in particular says countering piracy requires a joint effort by states, shipowners and other private interests, including security firms.
But shipowners complain that the money just sits in the federation's coffers.
To make matters worse, as far as shipowners and international regulators are concerned, the Chinese authorities have been conducting their investigations in secrecy.
As Robert Gates, America's defence secretary, lamented in April, the fight against piracy would be going better if shipowners stopped paying to regain their vessels.
If shipowners cannot contain their market-induced euphoria, they may rush to commission too much fresh tonnage, turning the highly profitable dearth in shipping into a painful glut.
In contrast to the current business model, where the ship-breakers buy the vessels from the owners outright and then sell the salvaged bits themselves, Ecodock is offering to split the proceeds with shipowners.
Shipowners hope that, if they do not succeed in getting rid of the payments by negotiation, a new convention on seafarers' rights being drafted at the International Labour Organisation, a United Nations body, will put an end to the scheme.
That means shipowners who wish to ply these waters will have to stop using bunker fuel (the cheap stuff left over once petrol, diesel and aviation fuel have been distilled from crude oil) to power their vessels because burning it produces too much sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and soot.
But the shipowners, the merchants, the brokers, and the wholesale dealers, are so disinterested in the midst of all their crushing and elbowing for the sugar business, that they send men to parliament whose chief and great service is to maintain this fixity of quantity, and prevent a larger business for them.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) marked its annual World Maritime Day celebration today with a collective call-to-action to the United Nations, world governments, military forces and even shipowners and crews reminding them that they all play an integral role in helping rid the world of modern-day piracy on the high seas, especially off the coast of Somalia and Indian Ocean.
FORBES: Piracy The Focus of Today's World Maritime Day Celebration
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