Abstract:

    Vessels, which are one of the components of the maritime transportation, perform their role in the marine market within the national and international rules. Port states inspect ships within the framework of construction, design, equipment and manning to determine if they are seaworthy. Port state control has an important role in the struggle against substandard maritime transport in terms of safety, security, and environment. The countries getting together in terms of port state controls have made regional port state arrangements. Turkey is a party to the Black Sea and Mediterranean Regional Agreement and controls foreign- flagged vessels, which visit its ports.     In this study, a Delphi technique was conducted on the officers who perform port state controls, by explaining the concept of port state control and describing the port state control in Turkey. The aim of the study is; through the experts’ opinions to find out the factors related to ships in port state controls implemented in Turkish ports prior to embarkation. While a compromise within the limits of expert opinions for the factors such as age, type, flag, class and company of a ship, the result of its previous inspection, ship tonnage and third-party notifications related to the ship was observed in the first stage of the research, a compromise for age, type and flag of the ship was determined in advanced stages. Besides, the study includes the expert's different comments about all factors related to the inspection of ships. At the end of the study, foreseen contributions of the research were explained by evaluating all the data and findings.

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