“A” Ship Security Officer has to be (well, should be) aboard at all times. ISPS isn’t only in effect “part of the time”, it’s all of the time, and the ship should be ready to respond and effect the administrative/physical requirements at all times.
Most of the time this means either the Master, or the Chief Mate needs to be aboard at all times, as well it should be. If the old man goes out to dinner during a port of call, the C/M stays aboard, and vice versa. When the relief rotation comes aboard, it’s the same deal. On occasion, you’ll even run into a C/E who is certificated, and now I would imagine that he/she will need to have an endorsement on their STCW.
Actually, that’s a good question for Jim Cavo: Under the current scheme, can a properly certified Engineer get the STCW endorsement as a SSO?
All I can say is suck it up. It’s supposed to have worked this way since the date of implementation back on 01 July 2004.
Those of you that don’t have the paperwork yet, you’ve had a 4 1/2 year reprieve. Time to get with the program, eh?