Minister of Transport and Aviation Glenys Hanna-Martin paid a courtesy call on the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) November 12, 2012.

She was accompanied by Anthony Kikivarakis, chairman of The Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA); Peter Goulandris, deputy chairman of BMA; Commodore Davy Rolle, director and chief executive officer of BMA; and Frank Davis, Acting High Commissioner & Alternate Permanent Representative to the IMO.

The Minister and the Secretary General shared views on pressing issues facing the IMO, including management reform, piracy, greenhouse gas emissions from ships and ballast waste management.

She also told the Secretary General that the government of The Bahamas would be seeking re-election to the council of the IMO under Category C at elections to take place during the Twenty-eighth Regular Session of the IMO Assembly in November 2013 in London.

The Bahamas has served on the IMO Council from 1991 to 1995, and from 1999 to date.

The Bahamas has the world’s fourth largest shipping registry, with more than 1,600 ships, consisting of some 55-million gross tons, including the world’s largest cruise liner, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.

The country has acceded to all of the major IMO conventions as well as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and relevant International Labour Organization conventions.