MMA Academy Offers Specialized Programs

Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay, Mass., offers a variety of STCW and specialized training programs for the maritime industry. Two of these programs are especially unique in their respective focus on maritime safety. One fosters prevention of maritime accidents, while the other addresses response measures that need to be taken once a maritime accident occurs.

The academy’s new Shiphandling Training Program in Manned Models is designed to provide pilots and ship’s officers with a better understanding of the art of shiphandling during a 5-day course of instruction and practical underway maneuvers in scale model replica ships at a training site comprised of buoyed channels, docks and anchorages.

The objective is to instill confidence and build skills in a safe, controlled environment, practicing maneuvers that would be impractical or too risky to attempt in the actual ship. The program is now in its second year of operation and pilots and ship’s officers from across the U.S. and Canada have been attending. The training fleet is comprised of two general cargo ships and a container ship. The academy’s first tanker model will enter service in the Summer 2001.

The academy’s Oil Spill Management Training Program was developed in response to the need for OPA-90 spill management training and students from around the country and overseas have received instruction and hands-on training in all the aspects of oil spill preparedness and response. This training includes deployment of equipment and responding to simulated oil spills, utilizing the academy’s oil spill management simulator. A new capability, made possible by advanced computer and communication technology, allows the simulated spill response training to be conducted remotely at the client’s location, utilizing the MMA based simulator as the host and transferring imagery and communications to the “remote nodes” at the remote location.