LETS SEE THE WORLD TOGETHER- 9

Let me wrap up the rest of the items of this "Lets see the world together" series.

1) Consultants- The vastness of this industry ensures that consultants are also very much into the game. All the organisations I have mentioned in my earlier posts hire consultants not only from the branded consultancies (I mean the likes of Mckinsey, BCG, AT kearney, KPMG etc) but also individual consultants who have carved a brand out of their names. The range of these consultants is simply too diversified... ranging from technical consultancy for a ultra modern vessel to financial consultancy deciding merger between two shipping companies.

2) Financial organisations- The kind of monetary involvement of this sector demands close links with all the major banks of the world. Often these banks hire people who have a combined knowledge of shipping and finance..... people who can understand both these trends.
Apart from banks there are insurance clubs (normally refered to as P&I clubs, for ex. North of England) . Just as we insure our vehicles, all the maritime structures are insured too. And in the unfortunate incident of any maritime accidents, organisations look to recover back the loss through these insurance organisations. However this is not as easy as it looks as it can sometimes involve serious legal battles. Maritime lawyers are hence highly valued.

3) Government organisations and legal bodies - We have organisations like USCG(US Coast guard) and similar bodies who have the resposibility to contr0l the waters of respective nations. We can also find maritime police or navy protecting the coastline of a country.
IMO is an international body which is supposed to regulate and control all the maritime related activities. How does it sound to be termed as "IMO consultant"? They deal with numerous issues including SOLAS (safety of life at sea) and MARPOL (marine pollution).
Respective countries have their own regulatory bodies. Ministry of shipping, DG shipping, Merchantile Marine Department(MMD) are top regulatory bodies in India.

4) Port authorities- Ports are the places where the cargo loading or discharging takes place. There are some remarkable ports like Singapore, Amsterdam, Antwerp etc. I was really amazed to see the number of ships that can be accommodated in ports like Antwerp and Amsterdam....the count will not be less than a thousand ships at a time. The last thing which one will like to experience in life is to find oneself lost in any of these ports and I was one of those unfortunate persons. It took a real hard day's work to locate the ship which I was supposed to board.

5) Research Organisations-There are numerous R&D institutes to aid all the organisations. For instance we have WoodsHole Oceanographic Insitute (MIT), KRISO (Korean Oceanographic insitute), NIOT (National institute of Ocean Technology) etc. Number of universities like University of Michigan also have quite remarkable maritime research institutes.

I think I have tried my best to cover most of the aspects of the maritime sector (although to very minor extent).