The International Maritime Organization was created by the United Nations in 1958 to help

establish international maritime laws. It also established many international conventions that
covered maritime safety. For example, the Safety of Live at Sea Convention and the Collision
Regulations were created by the International Maritime Organization. When a country adopts
the rules of a specific convention, they are enforced by each nation through the nation’s
courts.

The International Safety Management (ISM) Code was adopted by the International
Maritime Organization (IMO) by resolution A.741(18). The objectives of the ISM Code
are to ensure safety at sea, prevention of human injury or loss of life, and avoidance of
damage to the environment, in particular, to the marine environment, and to property.
The Code requires companies to establish safety objectives as described in section 1.2
of the ISM Code.

The ISM Code establishes safety management objectives which are:

to provide for safe practices in ship operation and a safe working environment;

to establish safeguards against all identified risks;

to continuously improve safety management skills of personnel, including

preparing for emergencies.

Safety Management System (SMS) was established by "the Company", which is

defined as the shipowner or any person, such as the manager or bareboat charterer,
who has assumed responsibility for operating the ship. This system should be designed
to ensure compliance with all mandatory regulations and that codes, guidelines and
standards recommended by IMO and others are taken into account.

The SMS in turn should include a number of functional requirements:

a safety and environmental protection policy;

instructions and procedures to ensure safety and environmental protection;

defined levels of authority and lines of communication between and amongst shore and
shipboard personnel;

procedures for reporting accidents, etc.;

procedures for responding to emergencies;

procedures for internal audits and management review.

The word ISO is derived from isosceles, as in isosceles triangle -equal sided triangle.
ISO first came about in 1987 by the International Organization for Standardization.
This organization, based in Switzerland, was created in 1947.

This non government body is made up of standards bodies from 130 countries of
the world. The goal of the organization is to promote standardization with the hope
of advancing the international exchange of products and services. It's work results
in international agreements that become standards across the world. Some of the
organization's achievements include photographic film, bank card size, shipping
containers, the SI (metric) system, etc. Basically, ISO provides management
guidelines, a framework if you will, which can be applied to any business to
increase the business's ability to produce a product with consistent quality. As far
as ISM is concern; ISO could be construed as the "sister program" of ISM, except
with ISM, safety is the product