Tanker ordeal

I refer to Adrian Mifsud's article (Tanker ordeal, October 16).

It is recognised internationally that the primary role and obligation of a ship agent is to assist the ship owner or charterer and the ship master in such a way as to render the ship's stay in port in compliance with the local legislation in force and with the ports' practices.

In this respect, one would ex-pect that the ship agent and his staff are conversant with the law and try to ensure full compliance with same.

The regulations require that: a tanker intending to enter a port notifies the authority 72 hours before arrival; a tanker requiring to enter port to carry out repairs has to provide a gas-free/inert condition certificate; the marine facility which intends to receive the ship shall inform the authority that it is accepting the ship; while it is at berth the ship master and facility are jointly responsible for any breach of law.

Moreover, it is the practice in Maltese ports that disabled tan-kers and more so when on tow, only enter or leave the port in daylight hours.

In this particular case, as often happens, what this office was trying to do was to assist the ship agent to comply with the law. Moreover, it is understood that the facility was not even aware that the ship was a tanker and that it was on tow.

Perhaps it is time for legislation governing the activities of ship agents to be enacted without further delay.