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Face:Keeping the CHIKYU safe

The CHIKYU makes use of a variety of equipment, and sometimes takes on missions it hasn’t any previous experience with. This CHIKYU has an unbroken record of more than 1500 days without accidents. We talked with HSE officer Minoru Minamoto, who works to support this record.
(Published online October 2012)

Interviewee:
Minoru Minamoto
HSE officer, Mantle Quest Japan Company Ltd.

Passing on safety information from the workfloor itself, where the risks are best understood

 The CHIKYU has two full-time safety management professionals on board.

 One of these is HSE officer Minamoto. He keeps an eye on the health, safety and environment (HSE) for the people on board. He checks whether the rules and regulations for safety management on the CHIKYU are adhered to, amends them if necessary and makes proposals for safer methods. That is his job.

 Minamoto has built up experience as a navigation officer on for instance car carriers and LNG carriers which transport liquefied natural gas, and has now been added as a crew member on the CHIKYU. He now also has to take on the challenge of new techniques for the CHIKYU’s scientific drilling which he hasn’t had any experience with before. For example, during the Japan Trench Fast drilling Project (JFAST) expedition in spring-summer 2012 an underwater camera was sunk for the first time in CHIKYU’s history. Although called an underwater ‘camera’, this is in fact a large piece of equipment that looks like a big earthenware pipe alongside the drilling pipe. You don’t know what kind of accidents can occur when it is a first try like that.

 The HSE officer draws up countermeasures for those kinds of risks so that the crew can work in safety. “Realistically, there is a limit to having two HSE officers overseeing the whole ship. I therefore ask for any information relating to safety to be passed on by people on the workfloor themselves, who have the best understanding of the risks,” tells Minamoto. It is this bottom-up policy that is protecting the safety of the people working on the CHIKYU.

 To begin with, the safety regulations on board the CHIKYU follow the strict guidelines laid down by the ocean drilling industry. A private company having strict guidelines is based on the thinking that having an environment where employees can work in safety will eventually be more profitable. The same goes for scientific drilling.

HSE officer Minamoto giving a briefing on board the CHIKYU.