THE Nautical Institute's Hongkong branch wants the Government to empower the Marine Department to take action against owners and surveyors who allow unseaworthy vessels to sail.
The institute's Hongkong branch chairman Paul Markland said that in the absence of such regulation, there had been an increasing trend towards old and unseaworthy tonnage.
''But if the Legislative Council gave more powers to the Marine Department, it would lead the vessel registers and classification societies to deal only with better tonnage and leaving bad tonnage with nowhere to turn to,'' he said.
He pointed out that recently there had been several cases which highlighted the need for legislation to be enacted both in Hongkong and in other countries around the world.
Citing a recent example, Mr Markland said a passenger vessel flying a foreign flag, which was subjected to port state inspection by the Marine Department during a visit to Hongkong, was found to have numerous infractions of safety requirements.
The vessel was found to have seriously deficient lifeboats, a damaged fire detection system and a breach of the vessel's watertight integrity and was held pending rectification of the deficiencies.
But Mr Markland emphasised that the most alarming aspect of the incident was that the ship's passenger-vessel certificate was just two days old, meaning that an accredited surveyor acting on behalf of the classification society and registry had inspectedand passed the ship ''safe'' and free to sail only 48 hours earlier.