Annual MARLO Conference 12-13 DEC 09

The annual MARLO Reception and Maritime Conference will be held from 12-13 December 2009 in Dubai, UAE. The reception will take place on the evening of the 12th, and the conference and lunch will take place on the 13th. The venue for all events is the Raffles Hotel in Dubai, UAE. The keynote speaker will be Commodore Tim Lowe, the United Kingdom Maritime Component Commander in the Middle East, and Deputy Commander of the twenty-three nation Combined Maritime Forces in Bahrain. Other speakers include senior military, government, and commercial leaders. They will discuss topics such as the anti-piracy operations of Combined Task Force 151 and provide updates on the ports of Umm Qasr, Iraq and Jebel Ali and Fujairah, UAE. All events, including the reception, the conference and the lunch are free of charge. If you would like to stay at the Raffles Hotel, please tell the hotel agent that you are attending the MARLO Conference. A detailed program and invitations will be sent out shortly via this mailing list. If you know of others not on this list who would like an invite, please have them email [email protected]. • SHADE Meeting for Anti-Piracy Efforts Every month, members of the naval forces and governments of the 28 nations involved in the anti-piracy effort are invited to attend the Shared Awareness and De-confliction (SHADE) meeting in Manama, Bahrain. This monthly meeting serves to coordinate anti-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia. More specifically, the SHADE meeting allows those involved in military operations a chance to establish how warships will communicate and divide the area for patrolling. At the same time, national navies conducting escorts for ships of national interest are able to share their practices and concerns. One priority of the SHADE meeting is engagement with the commercial maritime industry. All the navies agree that vigilant action by a well-informed merchant crew is the most effective method in preventing a hijacking attempt. At the monthly SHADE meeting, the commercial maritime industry is represented by a member of MARLO, a member of UKMTO, and at least one member from a commercial shipping company. If there is a specific concern or question you would like to see addressed at the next SHADE meeting, please email us at [email protected] or Captain Thomas Hastings at [email protected]. • UKHO Anti-Piracy Charts The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) http://www.ukho.gov.uk/ created an Anti-Piracy chart for use by all masters of ships sailing in waters affected by Somali piracy. The chart includes a depiction of the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) and essential information on preventing piracy attacks. The chart number is Q6099. It is free of charge, and can be ordered as one would order any UKHO chart.