The CEO of SAMI, Peter Cook said, “There has not been a successful hijacking of a commercial vessel in the High Risk Area since May 2012 and this is principally due to the increasing competence and professionalism of the private maritime security industry. This is the task SAMI set out to achieve and we have done it.”
Big news in the MarSec industry. SAMI or the Security Association for the Maritime Industry is liquidating. Like the article mentioned below, it is because of a huge decline in membership.
Although, there are some grumblings out there about SAMI being ineffective. Like for example, for the Seaman Guard Ohio incident, SAMI has not been able to do much for those men and the company, and you hear that amongst the community out there.
Either way, I still think SAMI has been pretty useful for getting everyone together and figuring out what needs to happen for regulating this industry. I mean the maritime security industry was the first PMSC group to have an ISO, so that is pretty cool.
Five years ago, piracy was pretty bad and numerous companies came onto the scene to answer the call. Some were good, and some were bad, and others had no business being involved with this stuff. But at the end of the day, PMSC’s saved the day out on the high seas.
It was groups like SAMI who decided to get organized and point the industry in the right direction with their voice, backed up by a membership of companies and insurance groups interested in the same thing. So for that, I thank SAMI and Peter Cook for putting in the effort.
As the readership knows, I actually dedicated a page to SAMI companies, just so folks had a resource to go to for finding MarSec companies. I will keep the page up until the SAMI website is gone. The companies that continue to provide MarSec will still be around. –Matt
Peter Cook, CEO of SAMI.
SAMI Voluntary Liquidation
APRIL 18, 2016“The Security Association for the Maritime Industry Ltd Announcement of Voluntary Liquidation”
After 5 distinguished years of representing the private maritime security industry the Directors of the Security Association for the Maritime Industry Ltd (SAMI) have made the decision to put the company into voluntary liquidation.
SAMI was formed when piracy and hijackings off the coast of Somalia prevailed, but since the first members joined in April 2011 much has changed. The CEO of SAMI, Peter Cook said, “There has not been a successful hijacking of a commercial vessel in the High Risk Area since May 2012 and this is principally due to the increasing competence and professionalism of the private maritime security industry. This is the task SAMI set out to achieve and we have done it.”
The industry has also evolved and consolidated significantly; our membership has fallen from its peak of 180 to less than half that figure. Consequently the Association is no longer financially sustainable in its current configuration.
The SAMI Secretariat has worked tirelessly, on behalf of its membership, to represent them in as many influential forums as possible around the world and to establish an effective regulatory structure for the use of armed guards on board ships in the pirate-infested waters of the Indian Ocean.
It is globally recognised that SAMI has had a very positive influence on the development of the use of armed guards on board ships in the North-West IndianOcean. As noted by a former commander of the naval task force EUNAVFOR, the private maritime security industry “has a 100% rate of success”, thereby, protecting many thousands of seafarers from pirate attacks and the horrors and deprivations of being held hostage. SAMI has also reassured ship owners, charterers and marine insurers of a high standard of professionalism from the Privately Contracted Armed Security Personnel (PCASP) providing a measured and proportionate response to deter pirates from attacking ships transiting the High Risk Area.