DISQUS

I've heard it in a lot of places, in the Mediterranean sea, Gibraltar strait, Adriatic sea, and a lot more. It is really unethical to reply to this prank voices on the vhf. But who can tell who they are. They can only advise or ask them to stop this nonsense in the vhf, but does anyone really got apprehended? If there was a circular news that somebody got apprehended and was imposed of fines regarding this on all fleets of ship. Maybe it will be stopped. I experienced one time approaching gibraltar strait on the 4 to 8 watch, this people start talking in the vhf, I cannot even hear the VTS information because of it. I've been on active seafaring and believe me, I've seen changes on human behavior whenever they've work onboard more than a year. Its not a Filipino all the time that started it, I've witnessed a Greek Captain who started this nonsense prank word and everyship in the area start to reply. Who gets to blame on this, I don't really know. It becomes a seawide word together with "mario", "Indian bad smell" and a lot of modifications. With the new sets of rules, paperworks, maritime security, and less time on berth. Liberty to even step on land is limited. Maybe some seafarers find it a way to reduce the pressure and boredom onboard. But its not a very good excuse. But I could say that the new generation of seaman now are more aware of what professionalism is. But out there on the sea who knows. Its a vast space and only a few people can appreciate what kind of life we are living out there. But honestly on my own opinion, this has got to be stopped.

It is really very dangerous standing below those containers. When I was still working on full container ships, we had an accident involving a stevedore smashed by a container. A horrible sight indeed.