Commentry : Maritime drones: Make it easier to fly but harder to comply

Recently, attended a conference, where came across an interesting presentation on "Where the sky and the sea meet" - Drones in maritime industry. This could be well presented in a nutshell - "Maritime v/s Aviation". This drew my attention towards the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, which can safely go where the human can't. Improving safety, surveillance, search & rescue, measuring emissions, speeding up processes, reducing costs and making access to the challenges breeze, are just the handful usages of the drones in the maritime industry.

As the UAVs capabilities increases, the privacy, cybersecurity risks etc. outweigh the benefits. The current maritime and aviation legal regime may lack clear comity and consistency both in national and international regulatory legal frameworks. A cautious navigation into the legal regimes is today's demand which would benefit the industries. This also extend the area of risk and liability insurances for the insurance sector and industries. The insurance sector has not yet taken a commanding position, as most insurance is brokers-led and facilitates with commercial covers. The split in maritime & aviation is challenging among insurers themselves. Therefore, need is to be more conscious about evaluating the risks involved in using these UAVs well in advance in order to prudently mitigate the risks.

An area of key development in the maritime industry but regulatory compliance is under the lens......................