Yeosu Maritime Affairs Office Fines Shipowners for Boarding Seafarers with Expired Maritime Licenses

If a Seafarer's Officer License Expires (5 Years), a Fine Will Be Imposed on the Ship Owner Employing the Seafarer

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Shim Kyung-taek] The Yeosu Regional Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Office (hereinafter Yeosu Maritime Office) imposed fines on four ship owners who continued to have crew members on board with expired maritime officer licenses during the month of April.

According to the Yeosu Maritime Office, they issue license renewals to crew members whose maritime officer licenses are about to expire, and in 2020, out of approximately 1,015 license renewals issued, there were a total of 9 cases where fines were imposed due to expired maritime officer licenses.

However, in April 2021 alone, fines were imposed in 4 cases for the same reason.

If a crew member's maritime officer license validity period (5 years) expires while on duty, the fine is not imposed on the crew member but on the owner of the vessel on which the crew member is serving.

Currently, when the expiration date of a maritime officer license approaches, a notification text message is sent to the crew member's personal mobile phone; however, if the phone number has changed or was not registered, the message is not received.

For such crew members, the Yeosu Office immediately updates the registration upon receiving the changed number, and for those not registered, they register the number promptly upon request.

The Yeosu Maritime Office requested cooperation from ship owners, stating, "While it is fundamentally the responsibility of individual crew members to properly manage the validity of their maritime officer licenses, considering the unique nature of crew members who continuously work at sea, ship owners should also carefully manage the license validity of crew members serving on their vessels to avoid fines and other disadvantages."