The latest edition of IMO News, No 4 of 2012, was issued at the end of the second week of December and contains, on page 10, a reference to the Secretary General’s attendance at VTS 2012 hosted in Istanbul by the Directorate General of Coastal Safety, Turkey and IALA. At this event Koji Sekimizu introduced the watchwords “Accident Zero”. This is an initiative encouraging IALA and VTS providers around the world to indicate the number of consecutive accident-free days they achieve.