THREE hundred shipping companies, including some based in Hongkong, have agreed to new standards of maintenance and emergency planning designed to make the ''astounding'' mistakes of skippers a thing of the past.
The move coincidentally follows public outcry over recent disasters like the tanker Braer off the Shetlands north of Scotland and the recent major tanker disaster off the north coast of Spain.
But it is also prompted by the fact that spilling as little as a barrel of oil in a California port can now cost US$1 million in damages.
The companies have acted together to try to reduce rocketing insurance premiums after what they admit have been appalling lapses.
They concede that a lack of adequate return on their investment during the 1980s has meant the world's merchant fleet is now ageing, ill-maintained, and has poorly equipped crews.
Incidents have reached such a peak that insurance costs have doubled since 1989. The companies which run their own mutual insurance organisation, the Standard Club, have already shed 25 per cent of their members who were considered too high a risk.