Glossary

Maritime Tech Glossary

The regulations, systems and technology terms that keep appearing in our coverage — defined in plain language. Türkçesi →

# AIS (Automatic Identification System): The transponder system ships use to broadcast identity, position and course. It underpins traffic safety — and most commercial vessel-tracking data.
# AIS spoofing: Deliberate falsification of AIS broadcasts — wrong position, identity or track — used to disguise a ship's real movements, a signature tactic of sanctions evasion.
# Ballast water management: Treating ballast water so ships don't transfer invasive aquatic species between regions, under the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention.
# Biofouling: Marine growth on hull and propeller. It increases resistance and fuel consumption — which now directly worsens carbon metrics like CII — and can carry invasive species.
# Bunkering: Fuelling a ship. "Bunkers" are marine fuel — usually a shipowner's or charterer's single largest voyage cost, and the pivot point of every fuel-transition debate.
# CIC (Concentrated Inspection Campaign): A time-boxed port state control campaign in which inspectors apply an extra, published questionnaire on one theme alongside routine inspections. Regional MoUs usually run one each year and publish the results afterwards.
# CII (Carbon Intensity Indicator): An IMO operational measure rating a ship's carbon intensity (A to E) based on fuel consumed and distance sailed each year. Poor ratings trigger corrective-action requirements.
# Classification society: An organisation that sets technical standards ("class rules") for ship construction and maintenance and surveys ships against them; class is a practical precondition for insurance and trading.
# Deficiency code: The standardised numeric code a port state control officer records against each finding. Because the codes are shared between inspection regimes, they are what makes deficiency patterns comparable across ports and years.
# Detention (PSC): A port state control decision to stop a ship from sailing until deficiencies serious enough to make it unsafe are corrected. It stays on the ship's and the operator's record and feeds the targeting systems that decide who gets inspected next.
# Digital twin: A continuously updated digital model of a physical asset — a ship, engine or system — fed by operational data, used to simulate, monitor and predict its behaviour.
# DPA (Designated Person Ashore): The person the ISM Code requires every operator to designate as the direct link between ship and top management for safety and pollution prevention.
# Dry-docking: Taking a ship out of the water for hull work, surveys and major maintenance — a planned, high-cost event that anchors the maintenance cycle.
# EEXI (Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index): A one-time technical efficiency requirement for existing ships — the design-efficiency counterpart to the operational CII.
# EU ETS (Emissions Trading System): The European Union's cap-and-trade carbon market. Shipping is included: companies surrender allowances (EUAs) for verified emissions on voyages covered by the scheme. Related guide →
# EUA (EU Allowance): The tradable permit of the EU ETS — one allowance covers one tonne of CO₂-equivalent. Its market price is what turns emissions into an operating cost.
# FIC (Focused Inspection Campaign): OCIMF's equivalent of a CIC within the SIRE tanker inspection programme: for a defined period, inspectors address a nominated question at every inspection, regardless of where the vessel trades.
# Flag state: The country whose flag a ship flies and whose law governs it. The flag state is responsible for enforcing international conventions aboard its ships.
# FuelEU Maritime: An EU regulation limiting the greenhouse-gas intensity of energy used on board ships trading to/from the EU, tightening over time. It works alongside — not instead of — the EU ETS.
# GFI (GHG Fuel Intensity): The measure at the heart of the IMO Net-Zero Framework: greenhouse-gas emissions per unit of energy used on board, assessed against a declining trajectory.
# GMDSS: The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System — the internationally mandated radio/satellite safety communication system. Commercial broadband (like LEO internet) does not replace it. Related guide →
# GT (Gross Tonnage): A dimensionless measure of a ship's total enclosed volume, used as the threshold in much regulation (e.g. "ships of 5,000 GT and above").
# IACS: The International Association of Classification Societies — the body through which major class societies harmonise technical rules, issuing Unified Requirements (URs) members must implement.
# IACS UR E26 & E27: IACS unified requirements on cyber resilience: E26 addresses the ship as a whole, E27 addresses on-board systems and equipment. Applied to newbuilds contracted after their entry dates.
# IMO (International Maritime Organization): The United Nations agency responsible for regulating international shipping — safety, security and environmental performance. Most global maritime rules originate here.
# IMO Net-Zero Framework: The IMO's proposed global measure combining a greenhouse-gas fuel-intensity standard with economic elements — the first attempt at sector-wide carbon pricing in shipping.
# ISM Code: The IMO's International Safety Management Code — requires a documented safety management system ashore and on board, audited and certified.
# LEO (Low Earth Orbit) connectivity: Satellite internet from constellations orbiting close to Earth (e.g. Starlink), giving ships low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity that legacy GEO systems could not. Related guide →
# MASS Code: The IMO's code for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships — the first global regulatory framework for ships operated with varying degrees of autonomy, phased in via a non-mandatory period first.
# MEPC (Marine Environment Protection Committee): The IMO committee that develops and adopts environmental regulation for shipping, including the greenhouse-gas measures. Numbered sessions (MEPC 83, 84…) are where the rules actually change.
# MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, Verification): The EU regime under which ships monitor and report voyage emissions data that an accredited verifier then checks — the data backbone of the EU ETS and FuelEU.
# OCIMF: The Oil Companies International Marine Forum — the association of oil majors that runs the SIRE vetting programme and publishes tanker-safety guidance.
# OT security: Security of operational technology — the control systems running engines, steering, cargo and safety equipment — as distinct from office IT. On ships, OT compromise is a safety event.
# P&I Club: A mutual insurance association of shipowners covering third-party liabilities — cargo, pollution, crew claims — that commercial hull insurers do not.
# Pooling (FuelEU): A FuelEU compliance mechanism: ships' compliance balances can be combined in a pool, so an over-compliant vessel offsets an under-compliant one — potentially across companies.
# Predictive maintenance: Maintenance driven by condition data and models that estimate when equipment will need attention — instead of fixed calendar/running-hour intervals.
# PSC (Port State Control): Inspection of foreign ships by the state whose port they visit, checking compliance with international conventions; detentions and deficiencies follow the ship's record.
# Remedial Unit (RU): Under the proposed IMO framework, the unit a ship acquires to cover a compliance deficit — in effect, the price of missing the fuel-intensity target.
# RightShip Safety Score: A 1-to-5 rating RightShip assigns to a vessel, used commercially by charterers when screening ships. Inspection history and age-based criteria feed it, so a missing or expired inspection can move the score independently of the ship's condition.
# RISQ (RightShip Inspection Ship Questionnaire): The questionnaire RightShip inspectors work through on dry bulk and general cargo ships — the rough counterpart to SIRE on the tanker side. It is revised periodically, and each revision changes what an inspection expects to see.
# Scrubber (EGCS): An exhaust gas cleaning system that removes sulphur oxides from engine exhaust, allowing use of higher-sulphur fuel while meeting emission limits.
# SEEMP (Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan): The ship-specific plan documenting how energy efficiency is managed and improved; Part III makes the CII improvement plan mandatory and auditable.
# Shadow fleet: Tankers operating outside mainstream insurance, class and flag oversight — typically ageing ships moving sanctioned cargoes with opaque ownership.
# Shore power (OPS / cold ironing): Plugging a berthed ship into the port's electricity grid so it can shut down its engines at berth — an emissions measure EU rules increasingly require for some segments.
# SIRE 2.0: OCIMF's digitalised tanker inspection regime: risk-based question sets, tablet-based inspections and structured findings — including human-factors observations — replacing the older SIRE programme.
# Slow steaming: Deliberately sailing below design speed to cut fuel consumption and emissions — one of the simplest levers for CII and carbon-cost management.
# Time charter: Hiring a ship for a period: the owner runs the ship, the charterer directs its employment and typically pays for fuel — which is why carbon costs create new who-pays questions.
# TMSA: OCIMF's Tanker Management and Self Assessment framework — the shore-side management counterpart to the SIRE ship inspection.
# Vetting: The commercial screening of a ship (and its operator) by charterers — typically oil majors — before fixing; inspection history like SIRE weighs heavily in the decision.
# VIQ / CVIQ: The question sets behind a SIRE tanker inspection. The VIQ is the full published library; the CVIQ is the vessel-specific subset an algorithm compiles for a given inspection from the ship's type, history and risk profile.
# Wind-assisted propulsion: Rotor sails, wing sails and kites that harvest wind to reduce engine load — increasingly relevant because fuel-intensity rules reward the saved energy.

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