S.L. 234.33 Art. 9Garbage record keeping.

(1) Every ship of 400 gross tonnage and above, and every ship which is certified to carry fifteen persons or more engaged in voyages to ports and offshore terminals under the jurisdiction of State Parties and every fixed and floating platform while engaged in exploration and exploitation of the sea-bed, shall maintain a Garbage Record Book. The Garbage Record Book, whether as a part of the ship’s official log-book or otherwise, shall be in the relative form set out in the Appendix to MARPOL Annex V.

(2) Each discharge operation, or completed incineration, shall be recorded in the Garbage Record Book and signed for on the date of incineration or discharge by the officer in charge. Each completed page of the Garbage Record Book shall be signed by the master of the ship. The entries in the Garbage Record Book shall be at least in English, French or Spanish. Where the entries are also made in an official language of the State whose flag the ship is entitled to fly, these entries shall prevail in the case of a dispute or discrepancy.

(3) The entry for each incineration or discharge shall include date and time, position of the ship, description of the garbage and the estimated amount incinerated or discharged.

(4) In the event of the discharge, escape or accidental loss referred to in regulation 10, an entry shall be made in the Garbage Record Book of the circumstances of, and the reasons for, the loss.

(5) The Garbage Record Book shall be kept on board the ship and in such a place as to be available for inspection in a reasonable time. This document shall be made available to the competent authorities of the governments of State Parties, for the purposes of inspection and the possible making of copies of entries recorded therein. In the latter case, the master of the ship is to certify that any such copies are true copies of such entries, if so required. Any copy so made, which has been certified by the master of the ship as a true copy of an entry in the ship’s Garbage Record Book, shall be admissible in any judicial proceedings as evidence of the facts stated in the entry.

(6) The Garbage Record Book shall be preserved for a period of two years after the last entry is made on the record.