Maritime Security is the business of protecting people, ships, cargoes, assets and operations on the surface and beneath the waters of the world.
It involves doing difficult things in a dangerous and demanding environment and it follows that the business of providing it is a higly specialised one which falls naturally to people who are seafarers first and foremost, and security specialists second. In an industry fast-growing in response to burgeoning Western Indian Ocean piracy, it is remarkable that several of the larger emerging maritime security providers are former land-based army people who only partly fulfil the security criteria (security at sea is very different from security in the streets of Basra) and have never seen a ship in their lives.
IMSA Ltd is a maritime security provider, but one who fulfils the maritime and the security criteria in full. All IMSA Ltd Privately Contracted Armed Security Personnel (PCASP) qualify under the stringent rules laid down by Norwegian shipowners in their Den Norske Krigsforsikring for Skib – Gjensidig Forening -(The Norwegian Shipowners’ Mutual War Risks Insurance Association) – Guidance on the selection of private security companies (PSC) 29.03.11. All the company’s consultants are former Royal Navy or Royal Marines sea-going people, and the majority have many years of experience as well in the commercial sector.
A true maritime security service has several components. The service that IMSA Ltd provides will audit and asses a client’s ship. It will report and make recommendations for hardening and protecting the ship and if necessary, superintend and oversee the implementation of those recommendations. IMSA Ltd is a fully certificated training organisation that can train, drill and exercise crew and Masters and the company office key personnel. The company is part of a Norwegian consortium providing maritime security in the widest sense, and another consortium member – Bergen Risk Solutions AS – provides an intelligence and optimum track routeing service alongside IMSA Ltd’s provision of armed guards.
With the provision of a proper maritime security service where armed guards or PCASPs are employed, it is vital that the Master and crew of the ship being secured have faith in those who are embarked to provide the service. All IMSA Ltd people – and especially the Team Leaders of the 4 man PCASP team, are selected primarily for their ability to get on with Masters. They will be familiar with ships, with the sea-going lexicon, and with the business of running a ship at sea. They can thus augment the lookout, help operate the ship as well as provide protection. Their greatest asset is perhaps their ability – well tested and honed – to provide a sounding board for the Master: someone to whom he can turn and depend upon in a crisis and who knows the business of maritime security inside out.
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