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Maritime Cook Islands will assist owners of vessels not registered in a State Party to obtain Wreck Removal Certificates after the Nairobi Wreck Removal Convention comes into force on 14 April 2015.

The convention requires all ships over 300 GT (including fishing vessels and commercial yachts) to have insurance in place to cover the location, marking and removal of a wreck, deemed to be a hazard in the convention area of states that are party to the convention.

A ship that flies the Flag of a state that is not a party to the convention must have a certificate issued from a State Party, Cook Islands wrote on the website.

Cook Islands Ambassador to IMO, Ian Finley, has advised the secretariat of the International Group of P&I Clubs that Cook Islands will issue Wreck Removal Certificates to ships flying the flags of non-State parties.

The International Group of P&I Insurers are offering to include Wreck Removal Insurance with the renewals of policies which will come into effect on 20 February 2015. This means that the majority of world shipping will have the necessary insurance in place when the Convention comes into force in April.