Maintenance Plan of Wakashio

Hello, I am a high school student, and I am doing a project about the oil spill that happened in Mauritius.

I have a question, and this seems like the right place to ask it. I’ll first put down the context, and then the question will follow:

The Wakashio was operated by Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. and owned by Nagashiki Kisen. The ship was previously operated by under the commercial control of Nippon Steel Shipping, but its long-term charter has now expired, and the vessel is operating on the spot market.

Does the owner of the Wakashio have a required maintenance plan? Or was maintenance done by the operator?

And if you are not certain, where can I find my answer? Which websites or resources will have this sort of information?

Thanks,

Pedro

So from the ISM Code, this definition is relevant:

1.1.2 Company means the owner of the ship or any other organization or person such as the manager, or the bareboat charterer, who has assumed the responsibility for operation of the ship from the shipowner and who, on assuming such responsibility, has agreed to take over all the duties and responsibility imposed by the Code.

because later it says:

  1. MAINTENANCE OF THE SHIP AND EQUIPMENT
    10.1 The Company should establish procedures to ensure that the ship is maintained in conformity with the provisions of the relevant rules and regulations and with any additional requirements which may be established by the Company.
    10.2 In meeting these requirements the Company should ensure that:
    .1 inspections are held at appropriate intervals;
    .2 any non-conformity is reported, with its possible cause, if known;
    .3 appropriate corrective action is taken; and
    .4 records of these activities are maintained.
    10.3 The Company should identify equipment and technical systems the sudden
    operational failure of which may result in hazardous situations. The SMS should
    provide for specific measures aimed at promoting the reliability of such equipment or systems. These measures should include the regular testing of stand-by arrangements and equipment or technical systems that are not in continuous use.
    10.4 The inspections mentioned in 10.2 as well as the measures referred to in 10.3 should be integrated into the ship’s operational maintenance routine.

Here is the text quoted above. There’s also information there about duty to protect the environment.

There’s going to be a database that the crew used to track what must be done, when it must be done, and what had already been done to maintain the ship and its systems. Their database will have been approved by their Class Society.

The short answer to your questions are the operator likely took care of the maintenance plan, and the maintenance work was mostly done by the crew. I can’t say anything specific about this ship, but that would be normal.