New regulation II-1/25-1 was adopted by MSC 103 with the intent to capture all ships – except for bulk carriers – which are currently not required to have a water level detection alarm. The requirement applies to the ships irrespective of length, presence of wing tanks or applied damage stability standard. Bilge alarms, which are commonly installed on cargo ships that do not carry bulk cargoes, will no longer exclusively fulfil the requirements of the proposed new regulation, and additional detectors will be required to do so. As this is not retrospectively applied, this gives owners and builders time to gain awareness and understand the commercial ramifications of this regulation. New SOLAS regulation II-1/25-1 deviates from SOLAS II-1/25, in that, the latter is dependent on the ship’s length which is not the case for the newly proposed regulation. Therefore, a review of SOLAS II-1/25 could be expected in the future to maintain consistency.