Seizures of Sanctioned Tankers Continue to Escalate
Three weeks ago, we covered the increasing risks to seafarers working in the “dark fleet” of tankers carrying Russian, Iranian, and other sanctioned oil. At the time, those risks to seafarers were mainly legal, as France and the United States sought to try the masters of falsely flagged vessels in the dark fleet.
Since then, at least five other dark fleet tankers have been seized by the US Government, including the Marinera (former Bella) in the North Atlantic in January and Veronica in the Caribbean. The master of Marinera, Georgian national Avtandil Kalandadze, has been charged in the US and taken there from Scotland by the US Coast Guard, despite a court order requiring him to remain in the UK.
Rising Threats to Seafarers in the Arabian Gulf
Today, the threats to all seafarers in the Arabian Gulf are far graver than the legal risks facing Mr. Kalandadze, as we will examine. The war in Iran has elevated the danger facing seafarers in the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, as the Strait of Hormuz becomes the epicentre of the struggle between the US and Israel on one side, and Iran on the other. Hundreds of ships, thousands of seafarers, and the entire populations and economies of the Gulf Arab states are caught in the middle.
The Joint Maritime Intelligence Centre review of attacks on shipping described the situation adequately: “The incidents involve a wide range of vessel types and flag states, with no consistent pattern of Western ownership linkage, suggesting that the current strike pattern reflects a campaign aimed at broad maritime disruption rather than selective vessel targeting. Recent incidents indicate that attacks are no longer confined to transit corridors and may occur across a broad operating area of the Arabian Gulf, including anchorages, Ship-to-Ship operations, and port approaches.”
Life as a Seafarer in the Modern Era
Life as a seafarer has probably not been this risky in a generation. During the 1984 to 1988 Tanker War in the Arabian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, a total of 451 ships were attacked, primarily by Iraq, and over 300 seafarers were killed, injured, or reported missing as Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini attempted to cut off oil exports from each other, declaring various exclusion zones in which their forces could attack shipping.
Do we really want to go back to those dark days again?
Original Article: COLUMN | Dark times for the dark fleet (and for seafarers generally) [Offshore Accounts] — Bairdmaritime