At 8.55 am on 10 September 1979, the tanker World Encouragement was conducting berthing operations at an Australian Oil Refinery (AOR) mooring at Kurnell in Botany Bay, New South Wales, when oil began rising to the water surface from beneath the ship.

Shipping containers lost from ships are a cause of pollution in the marine environment.

Read previous AMSA update editions from 2025

Exercise Barossa was a biannual oil spill response exercise conducted in Adelaide under our National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil and Other Noxious and Hazardous Substances.

Find out more about how to get a certificate of medical fitness, and why you need one.

How to get a Watchkeeper deck certificate of competency if you are a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Maritime warfare officer or Rating.

Find out if the vessel you own or operate under a boat-share agreement is a domestic commercial vessel.

In this edition we talk about Draft instruction for ultrasonic thickness measurement for metallic vessels, Transitional requirements, Proposed changes to SAGM Pt 2 Stability booklets and more

If your registration certificate is lost or damaged, you will need a new one.

Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL Annex VI) allows ships to use exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) to comply with the 0.50 per cent m/m sulphur fuel oil limit that commenced on 1 January 2020

Small uncrewed autonomous vessels operating in C, D, or E waters.

Dispersants can be effective response tools. Use of dispersants is dependent on many factors including timing, properties of the oil, and logistics.

We cannot process or issue any certificate or endorsement if your application is incomplete.

All domestic commercial vessels are required to have a national law certificate of survey—unless an exemption applies.