On 1 March, he will officially retire and then René de Vries will follow in his footsteps. In 2009, the Port Authority officially recorded 124 nautical accidents, as opposed to 126 in 2008. Only six were ‘significant accidents’ involving considerable damage or obstruction. As a result of the credit crisis, the number of ship movements fell from 89,297 to 81,611 and the number of ocean-going vessels from 36,415 to 33,352.

Last year, the Port Authority took some important steps in the field of safety and order on the water by modernising the traffic guidance system, the covenant ‘Inspections on board ocean-going vessels’, which enables the harbour master to act more effectively as generally accepted coordinating supervisor, the new Port Bye-Laws and the updated ‘traffic separation system’ in the port’s approach area.

Shipping behaviour
Jaap Lems expressed satisfaction at the results of the over 11,000 inspections. They demonstrated that crews were complying better with the regulations. On the basis of the ‘safety and environmental index’ developed by the Port Authority, the environmental safety level was given an 8.5 and the transport security level an 8.3. The harbour master made specific reference to inspections on vessels with residual gas. Of the 104 inspections, only one warranted a booking. The harbour master found it encouraging that ships delivered more waste to Rotterdam’s reception facilities again this year (+ 4.5%).

As chairman of the ‘European Harbour Masters’ Committee’, he warned about the threatened quality of the ever-dwindling crew on ocean-going vessels in general. According to him, this leads to communication problems, fatigue and less experience, and this is reflected particularly in ports.