Vol. 17 No. 5 September/October 2020

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Voicesfrom theSeafarers
Page 4‘Let’s become a seafarer’Job fair on oceanic fisheries held at Hokkaido Otaru Fisheries High SchoolA

job fair on oceanic
fisheries was held on
Aug. 1, 2020 at Hokkaido Otaru FisheriesHigh School’s boathouse. At theevent called “Funanori ni Naro!
(Let’s become a seafarer),” 20 junior high school students from
Otaru and Sapporo participated,accompanied by their parents.
Today, there is a glaring shortage of seafarers in Japan. To secure and develop successors, it
was designed to demonstrate
the appeal of being a seafarer to
middle school students who arethinking of their future and toencourage them to consider it asa career decision. The hope is thatsuch efforts would lead to eliminating the shortage of seafarers
facing the shipping and fisheries
industries.
It was the first such attempt,
in which the All Japan Seamen’s
Union (JSU) participated actively.
At the beginning of the job fair,a DVD showed the importantseafaring jobs held by women.
Six girls who attended the event
expressed interest. Mr. Tsukasa
Kimura, headmaster of the highschool, gave an address. “It was
the first such event for our highschool, too,” he said. “I hope thatthrough this job fair, the attendees
will become interested in seafaring even just a little bit and that it
will help them chart a course and/or make a career choice.”
After a speech by Mr. Kazaru Endo, director of the JSU’s
Hokkaido Regional Office, Mr.
Hidekazu Yamazaki, vice-director at the regional office, gave apresentation using PowerPoint
slides. He outlined the domestic shipping business and gavea briefing on a wide variety of
relevant subjects, such as what
seafarers do and how they live on
board ships. Another DVD wasplayed, which was on domestic
shipping and entitled “Umi e (Tothe Sea).”As the job fair answered questions from the students, one ofthem said that they were alreadyinterested in seafaring, and thatthe lectures gave them a betteridea what it would be like to be aseafarer. The attendees were theninvited to board a small vessel.
With the sun shining, they all had
smiles on their faces.
Training vessel WakatakeMaru

A job fair is held for local junior high school students.

Hokkaido Otaru Fisheries High School.

Mr. Hidekazu Yamazaki gives a lecture on seafarers’ duties.

Otaru PortMARITIME NEWS(2)

Cyber attack
knocks out some
IMO web services
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has been hit by acyber attack that has taken out anumber of its web-based services.
Since Sept. 30, the issue has
been affecting IMO’s public website and internal intranet services.
“The interruption of service wascaused by a sophisticated cyberattack against the Organization’s
IT systems that overcame robust
security measures in place,” theIMO said, adding that the organization’s IT technicians shut down
key systems to prevent further
damage from the attack.
“The IMO is working with UN
IT and security experts to restore
systems as soon as possible, toidentify the source of the attack,and further enhance security systems to prevent recurrence.”
As informed, internal andexternal emails are working as
normal while service has been
restored to the GISIS database, IMODOCS and Virtual
Publications.
Furthermore, the IMO Secretariat has continued to function
with some limitations and the
Facilitation Committee has continued meeting this week on theexternal platform.
Earlier this week, French container shipping giant CMA CGM
also confirmed a cyber attack impacting the company’s peripheral
servers. CMA CGM thus became
the fourth major shipping company to experience a cyber attack,after Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), China’s
COSCO Shipping and Danish
Maersk. (Source: Splash, October
1, 2020, by Naida Hakirevic)

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

CDC issues new social distancing guidelines

T

he Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) issued
updated guidance toits How COVID-19 Spreads website, which includes information
about the potential for airborne
spread of the virus that causes
COVID-19.
The CDC, a U.S.-government
institute based in Atlanta, Georgia, continues to believe, basedon current science, that people are
more likely to become infected
the longer and closer they are to aperson with COVID-19. Today’s
update acknowledges the existence of some published reports
showing limited, uncommon
circumstances where people with
COVID-19 infected others who
were more than 6 feet away or
shortly after the COVID-19-pos-

itive person left an area. In these
instances, transmission occurredin poorly ventilated and enclosed
spaces that often involved activities that caused heavier breathing, like singing or exercise. Suchenvironments and activities may
contribute to the buildup of viruscarrying particles.
Airborne transmission
Some infections can be spread byexposure to virus in small droplets
and particles that can linger in the
air for minutes to hours. These viruses may be able to infect people
who are further than six feet awayfrom the person who is infected orafter that person has left the space.
This kind of spread is referred toas airborne transmission and is an
important way that infections liketuberculosis, measles, and chicken
pox are spread.
There is evidence that undercertain conditions, people with
COVID-19 seem to have infected others who were more than 6feet away. These transmissions
occurred within enclosed spacesthat had inadequate ventilation.
Sometimes the infected person
was breathing heavily, for example
while singing or exercising.
Under these circumstances, scientists believe that the amountof infectious smaller droplet andparticles produced by the people
with COVID-19 became concentrated enough to spread the virus
to other people. The people who
were infected were in the same
space during the same time or
shortly after the person with COVID-19 had left.

Available data indicate that it ismuch more common for the virusthat causes COVID-19 to spreadthrough close contact with a person who has COVID-19 than
through airborne transmission.
Recommendations
The CDC’s recommendations remain the same based on existingscience and after a thorough technical review of the guidance.
People can protect themselvesfrom the virus that causes COVID-19 by staying at least six feetaway from others, wearing a maskthat covers their nose and mouth,washing their hands frequently,
cleaning touched surfaces often
and staying home when sick.
(Source: Linda Hohnholz, eTN
editor )Asia campaign addresses crew change crunch
A host of the world’s leading shipping organizations have started acampaign, writing letters to governments of Asian nations, in a bid
to unlock the crew change crunch.
The campaign has started with
the Philippines, the country that
supplies more crew than anywhereelse.
The heads of many of the world’s
top shipowning associations aswell as unions, ship managers andP&I Clubs have written to Arthur
Tugade, the secretary for transport
in the Philippines and Robert Empedrad, the administrator of thecountry’s Maritime Industry Authority.
While praising the country formany of its initiatives to processcrew throughout the pandemic,

the letter has two specific recommendations for how Manila canhelp fix the crew change crisis.
The group of shipping heads are
calling on the Philippines to introduce temporary visa waivers forcrew changes through appropriate
means, to be implemented for seafarers holding a seafarer’s identity
document issued in accordancewith the ILO Conventions No.
108 or No. 185, or the IMO Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic, or a valid
ticket or booking with the ships’
agents as the guarantors of theirbona fide identities.
Moreover, given the territorial limitation of such a waiverto the state granting it, the groupalso calls for cooperation between

Asian countries to temporarily allow for a visa free transit area in
Asia for seafarers.
The other area the group is keen
to bring to the attention of the authorities in Manila regards the limited availability of flight connections between world seaport hubs
and the Asian seafarer supplying
countries. The group is urging thePhilippines to create, in consultation with the aviation industry
and other countries, the necessary
conditions for seafarer air corridors
between crew supply countries andmajor seaport countries so as to increase access, as soon as possible, tocommercial flights.
The limited flight options also
cause difficulties in aligning flights
with vessel embarkation and disem-

barkation times, the group pointed
out, commending the Philippines
for allowing seafarers of any nationality to stay in the country until thearrival of the flight or ship without
restricting the number of days. The
group called on the Philippines tourge other governments to remove
national restrictions and to allow for
seafarers to stay in their countries
for at least 10 days for the purposesof on-signing and repatriating albeit
restricting seafarer movement.
The letter to the Philippines
is the first step calling for leadership actions and the group will be
communicating with other Asian
governments with specific crewchange recommendations in the
coming days. (Source: Splash, by
Sam Chambers)

Handling anxiety of fake news in the era of COVID-19
Conspiracy theories and misinformation spreading are typicalfeatures of an unprecedented situation, such as a global pandemic
that is in the spotlight of media
attention. But what is the effectof this phenomenon to seafarers,
at a time when discussion about
mental health issues is already at
the top of shipping agenda?
“We are not just fighting an
epidemic. We are fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads fasterand more easily than this virus
and is just as dangerous,” Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director
General, WHO.
Several factors associated with
the nature of life onboard havebeen identified as having an adverse impact on seafarers’ mental
health and COVID-19 is at theforefront of discussions in the last
six months.
In a time when thousands ofseafarers are trapped on ships due
to travel restrictions in breach of
their labor rights, increased con-nectivity is seen as positive for
seafarers’ mental health enablingthem to keep in touch with their
beloved ones. And while adequate
information is seen as positive in atime of crisis boosting their senseof belonging, the increased use ofsocial media onboard hides a redzone: dangerous misinformation.
More specifically, the stress associated with the pandemic uncertainty can be easily exacerbatedthrough fake news, which finds a
fruitful ground in the era of social
media. Although fake news hardly
is a new phenomenon, the criticalpoint to consider is that social media spreads disinformation at an
unprecedented speed and reaches
wider audiences far beyond the
traditional limitations of distance.
How does fake news work?
Fake news refers to both misinformation (false information sharedby misguided individuals) anddisinformation (false information

shared with the explicit intention
to deliberately mislead its audience).
Spreading misinformation canstart from:• individuals, such as criminals,
after some sort of profit;• states and state-backed actors
seeking to advance geopoliticalinterests;• opportunists looking to discredit official sources.
“Human attention is drawn tonovelty, to things that are new
and unexpected. We gain in status when we share novel information because it looks like we're in
the know, or that we have accessto inside information,” explained
data scientist Sinan Aral, over 20
years ago.
“In a time of high fears, uncertainties and unknowns, there is
fertile ground for fabrications toflourish and grow. The big risk
is that any single falsehood thatgains traction can negate the significance of a body of true facts,”

says Guy Berger, who is the Director for Policies and Strategies
regarding Communication andInformation, UNESCO.
Why is it more critical now?
Hence, Covid-19 creates the perfect case study for fake news toflourish. In a time of crisis, we’redesperate for information–and
the public’s response to news is
swift.
Particularly,
misinformation
about the virus can be dangerous,
ranging from wide confusion anddistrust to harmful fake coronavirus cures. A study conducted in
the first months of the pandemic
revealed that at least some 800
people died from misinformation,by drinking bleach to disinfecttheir bodies or eating cow dung toprevent infection.
Onboard a ship, increased stressdue to isolation comes to act as acatalyst for seafarers to be more
susceptible to fake news consum-ing.
Prominous examples of misinformation during COVID-19• “Coronavirus was made in alab”
• “Coronavirus can transmit
through mosquito bites”• “African people are immune”
Did you know?
• Facebook reports nearly 50 million pieces of COVID-19-related
content had to be flagged withwarning label for disinformation,in April alone;• “Fake news” as a term originates from the 2016 U.S. presidential election• Studies showed many American students cannot tell whatnews is fake and what news is real.
What can you do?
EUROPOL has shared several
Continued on Page 4

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

HEALTH & FITNESS(3)

On-board Exercises

Actress Kaoru Yumi presents the Nishino Breathing Method

浄
浄
如
如

Jonyo—imagine your body becoming as clear as
crystal with energy generated from your body.

Take breaths in deeply through the Sokushin Breathing Method as if they wereguided with your hands. In Jonyo, face your palms downward (2. and 3.), and when
doing so, pay full attention to your hands. Bend your wrists gently(5.), and stretch
your arms relaxingly as if they were taken to “heaven” and “earth”. Pay attention
exclusively to your hands and lower abdomen, and imagine that the other parts are
all gone. Jonyo helps clear your head and improve your body balance.

1. Relax your entire body, and stand withyour legs together.
4. Turn your left palm to yourleft and right palm to yourright. Cross your left leg overyour other leg. When doing so,have your right leg on tiptoe.

Points to do‘Sokushin’ breathingImagine a big tree absorbing water from its
roots and deliver to each leave. Inhale asif breaths were taken from sokushin (thesoles of your feet) and up through yourknees, thighs, tanden (lower abdomen). While
keeping attention on your anus lightly, continue
to breathe in through your backbone all way
to hyakue (the vertex of your head). Then holdyour breath lightly until your breathing traverse
through your tanden. And then take breaths out
toward sokushin.

6. While breathing out throughyour mouth, bend your knees
lightly, and move your left
hand down.

8. When you have finishedbreathing out, return to yourstarting position. Do 1 through7 the other way around.

2. While taking breaths in through yournose as in the Sokushin Breathing Method,
have your palms face downward, and haveyour hands slowly up until the level ofyour chest.

5. Hold your breaths gently
when they have reached the
top of your head, and then,bring them down to your lower
abdomen. Have your left palm
face upward and right palm
downward.

7. Continue to take breaths out
and move your left hand downwith your left palm facing yourleft.

3. While continuing to breathe in, moveyour left hand up and right hand down.
Be sure to relax your shoulders.

All JApAn SeAmen’S Union
15-26, Roppongi 7-Chome,
Minato-Ku, Tokyo 106-0032

Institute of Nishino Breathing Method
Email:
info@nishinojuku.com
Internet:

https://www.nishinojuku.com/
english/e_top.html

Tel.: (03) 5410-8320
Fax: (03) 5410-8336
E-mail: iss@jsu.jp
Internet: http://www.jsu.or.jp
Publisher: Hiroyuki Tachikawa
Send inquiries to the attention of
Mr. Hiroyuki Watanabe,
Director, International Dept.

SEAFARERS’ CORNER/NEWS(4)

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

VOICES from SEAFARERS

Officers and crew of MV CAPE GREEN
The present pandemic is a cause of great concern to theseafarers, ship-owners and governments all around theworld in dealing with crew-change, cargo operations andall ship-related activities. We, seafarers should encourage
everyone to follow the health protocols in dealing with theprevention of this infectious virus. Everyone please stayhealthy and stay safe!!!

Master and signing off crew of MV DEVON BAY
We are grateful to our beloved company and to the authorities who have allowed this crew change in Japan. It is
our wish to be patient in tackling this on-going pandemic
and to think safety at all times.

Crewmembers of MV COMET ACE
The surge of corona virus had widely spread around theglobe. Nobody knows yet the cure and cause of this pandemic. To ensure one’s health and safety, everybody wereadvised to follow the safety protocols of wearing the prescribe gears against the covid-19.

Officers and crew of MV MORNING CHRISTINA
With or without pandemics, seafarers like us are obliged
to the call of duty of maintaining the ship’s course going.
To our love ones and friends, please remain at home andbe safe while we’re still away.

Officers and crew of MV ULTRA LANIGAN
May we call on our fellow seafarers to adhere to the principle of safety first. As one of our precautions, we are observing the proper hygience and clean sanitations to stop
the spread of the corona virus. Good luck and take extra
care everyone.

Signing off crewmembers of MV CAPE BRITANNIA
Signing off is one of the happiest moments in a seafarer’s
life especially on the midst of the pandemic. We are gladthat our company and the concerned union had initiatedthis crew change in Manila Bay. Thank you so much!

IMO establishes action team over crew change crisisT

he International Maritime Organization(IMO)
establishedthe Seafarer Crisis Action Team (SCAT) in efforts toresolve the crew change crisis.
The IMO reports that a large
number of seafarers, as well as
their spouses and family members
have contacted the IMO to share
their concerns about a variety ofdifficult situations caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Therefore, SCAT focused oncontacting representatives fromnational governments, NGOs,

trade unions or relevant associations, or orienting seafarers
towards the right organization, tofind solutions.
The IMO further provides examples on how SCAT helps seafarers. In one case, on May 10, theIMO was contacted by a fatigued
seafarer on an offshore support
vessel. He and many of his colleagues had spent 100 days offshore–some had already counted
140 days–with no break and noprospect of crew changes. The
seafarer was worried because his
employer was planning to extend

crew contracts by another twomonths.
SCAT brought the message
to the attention of the relevantNGOs in consultative status
with the IMO and liaised withthe maritime authorities of theflag and port states concerned
Following this swift intervention
from the IMO, the port state confirmed it would take the necessary
measures to facilitate crew change
while the ship was in its port or
terminal, and the seafarer was able
to go home and be reunited withhis family.

In another case, a seafarer onboard a container ship called the
IMO on April 12. His contract,which was due to finish at theend of March, had been extended
for another month. The seafarer
claimed that his company was
failing to take action to changecrew, even though government
assistance made that option possible.
Though the seafarer admitted
they were not in a critical situation physically, it had serious impacts on their mental health.
SCAT referred the seafarer tothe relevant national maritime
administration and trade unions,while also bringing the matter tothe attention of the flag and port
States concerned. This diplomaticintervention helped resolve thecase, and the flag state confirmed
it would assist the seafarer with his
contract and repatriation.
The IMO had issued a circular concerning the Framework ofProtocols emphasizing the needfor compliance and strict adherence with COVID-19 testing andquarantine requirements. (Source:
SAFETY4SEA)

Fake news: Learn to identify the validity of information
Continued from Page 2
tips anyone can follow to help
break the fake news chain:
1. Learn how to identify information:— Be mindful: fake news willoften tell you what you want tohear with clickbait headlines.
—Look around: is the website
trustworthy? Check the website’s
about page, mission and contact
info.
—Check the sources: is anyother news source reporting on
the same thing? How many sources does the story quote?
—Photo search: is the news
you are reading accompanied bya photo that strikes you as out ofcontext? Run an online search, it
might be your clue towards figuring out that this is an example ofmisinformation.
—Check the date: some news
outlets re-publish old posts or
promote old news as current stories. Check the publication dateof the article and check if thetimeline it refers to makes sense.
—Turn to the experts: go to
reputable websites, such as theWorld Health Organization, yournational health authority and theEuropean Commission. Is the information also available there?
2. Since you have learned how
to identify misinformation, do
not engage with it, do not comment and do not share further.
Doing so would just help makethe post more popular.

3. If it was on social media, report the post to the platform. If
you know the person who shared
the fake news, send them a private
message and tell them the information is likely false.
4. Finally, contribute to sharing
official information. Share updates
from trustworthy, official websitesthat report on COVID-19.
The world is changing fast, andso is the way we find out about
it. Stop consuming yourself with
science-fiction garbage. The truth

is out there! And remember, fakenews spreads when it is angry!
Did you know?
In May 2019, Singapore, a major
maritime hub, passed the Protection from Online Falsehoods
and Manipulation Act, requiring
online platforms, including social media, to issue corrections or
remove content that the government deems false. (Source: SAFETY4SEA)