Best Management Practices (BMP)

Best Management Practices is the shipping industry’s consolidated counter-piracy guidance, now in its fifth edition, BMP5, published in 2018 by a consortium including BIMCO, ICS, INTERTANKO and INTERCARGO. It sets the four core measures (report to UKMTO and register with MSCHOA, follow the threat assessment, implement ship-protection measures, and report any attack) plus vessel-hardening guidance: razor wire, citadels, water cannon, and lookout discipline. BMP5 covers the wider region after the Indian Ocean High Risk Area was withdrawn in January 2023.