This Act provides for the registration and marking of ships in Kiribati and for navigation. It also in part implements the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 and other international agreements. The person holding the public office designated Director of Marine shall perform the functions and duties of the Director set out in this Act. The Director may establish Mandatory Survey System for all ships registered. There is established a Marine Board, which shall assist and advise the Minister. All incidents during which a marine pollutant escapes into the marine environment or is suspected of escaping into the marine environment shall be reported to the Director as soon as practicable after the incident. The Act provides with respect to Marine Pollution Response, Command and Plans. The operators or controllers of any facility, which is capable of transferring a Marine Pollutant capable of entering the marine environment from that facility shall develop or cause to be developed a Marine Pollution Response Plan that shall be approved by the Minister on the advice of the Director of Marine.he advice of the Director of Marine.
Any vessel found not to be in compliance with MARPOL may: (a) if in a port within Kiribati, be detained by any of those monitoring officers described in subsection (1) until the vessel has complied with provisions of MARPOL, (b) if boarded at sea by any of those monitoring officers during the course of normal fisheries compliance monitoring operations, and found to be non-compliant, the vessel may either be directed to the nearest port for further inspection and assessment or instructed to leave Kiribati waters. The Act also provides for port state control.