The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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www.skipper.co.nz underwater cables, in particular the Cook Strait cable and its associated fishing prohibition zone. The costs of repairs are very high. There are only two ships in the world capable of doing such work and they require about one year's notice. Cam Speedy, of Southern Seabird Solutions, pointed out some rather unexpected aspects of the decline of New Zealand's seabird populations. Loss of breeding habitat and introduced predators are the main causes. In essence, the keeping of farm animals, domestic cats and dogs have been and continue to be far more pernicious eliminators of seabirds than fishermen, who at least make some effort to prevent such deaths. He urged all parties to adopt a "Duty of Care" culture rather than a "Compliance" culture. It is better to have fishermen willingly operating in a pragmatic way than obeying letterof-the-law rules that may not be effective. He cited simple initiatives, such as a fixed deck hose spraying astern – harmless, but birds dislike it and keep away. The 55th AGM of the Federation was held on the morning of Saturday May 18. In his President's Report, Doug SaundersLoder commented that, in times of radical changes in the industry, it has been gratifying to find that the Federation's opinion is frequently sought on issues. Membership, at 318, is up on the previous year (310), reversing a trend. The Election of Officers resulted in the preservation of the status quo, as all were re-elected. Doug Saunders-Loder from Golden Bay/Motueka remains as president, with Allan Rooney from West Coast as vice president. The executive committee is Cindy Bailey from Leigh, Brian Kiddie from Bay of Plenty, Keith Mawson from Taranaki, Carol Scott from Port Nelson, Peter Scott from Port Chalmers and Tony Threadwell from Lyttelton. Professional Pragmatic Proven Saving your business time and money by delivering design solutions that work. Naval Architecture, Marine and Electrical Engineering and Mechanical design, tailored solutions to suit your needs. • Concept and detail design • New-building, conversion or refit • Commercial and military ships, barges, yachts, work boats, small craft, offshore • Structural design and analysis (including FEA), production drawings and cut parts • Stability, powering and sea keeping analysis • Systems engineering – electrical high and low voltage, piping, HVAC • Bespoke mechanical design – winch equipment design is a speciality • Technical investigations and feasibility studies • Project management, tendering and contract process Auckland | 40 Triton Drive, Rosedale | 09 419 8440 Whangarei | 279 Port Road | 09 437 6760 VIP.S93 Transport Operator's Certificate will last up to 10 years. Under SSM, surveyors were employed by SSM companies, but under MOSS they do not have to be so employed. MNZ will be responsible for standards. The MOSS Industry Advisory Group, drawn from all sectors of the industry, first met on May 2, 2013 and will meet again in June to discuss audit processes. To the perennial complaint that surveyors are big-ship engineers, imposing irrelevant requirements on small vessels, the answer was that there would be no prescriptive rules – those imposed would be commonsense rules, relevant to the operation. Survey charges will be standardised for the whole country, so as not to penalise remote operators. Some 2,000 operators (3,000 vessels) will enter MOSS by June 30, 2018, 50 percent having done so by February 28, 2016. MNZ will produce templates for operators to draw up their own MTOPs. Sharyn Forsyth spoke on the Oil Pollution Levy. Costs have been greater than the total funds levied, so there will be increases. The fishing industry pays 2.5 percent of total levies, and there will be two extra temporary levies, caused by the wreck of MV Rena, for the next three years. The fishing industry's share of the increased levies will total $138,000 per annum. The uncertainty of change and increased costs left many fishermen concerned for their futures. Many were not happy with the MNZ message. Forsyth was joined by Jonathan Rudge to speak on Seafarer Certification. There will be no change to limits and abilities under existing certificates, but titles of these have changed. Limits have been changed, with the Inshore Fishing Limit remaining at 12 nautical miles, the Coastal Limit at a uniform 50nm and the Offshore Limit to the edge of the Exclusive Economic Zone. There is a temporary facility to enable a master to operate outside his certified limit twice. If he wishes to continue, he must qualify for the next higher certificate. Vessels used under this dispensation must be surveyed for the greater limit. Revalidation every five years was raised. The certificate itself is not in question, but ancillary matters – fire fighting, first aid – have to be updated. Mark Geytenbeek (MPI) spoke on Observer Coverage, running through information currently obtained. He made the point that at-sea observers gather much ancillary information, but the need to minimise costs led to experimental electronic coverage in Timaru, carried out by Archipelago Ltd. Based around protected species/fisher interactions, it involved six set net vessels fitted with video cameras. There were various battery, camera and software problems, but towards the end some useful data were obtained. An observer vs. camera trial revealed that the camera was more accurate than human eye and manual recording. Geytenbeek made the point that there was huge pressure within New Zealand and even more from overseas on the Government to institute further restrictions on inshore set netting and trawling. He made the point that the Observer Coverage evidence will enable the Government to counter some types of green nonsense. Tony Stallard, of Stallard Law spoke on spatial exclusion, specifically on Undue Adverse Effects, The threshold for compensation under UAE rules is five percent – a fisher can lose up to five percent of his ability to catch and receive no compensation. For access lost in the Marine Protected Areas, the threshold is 10 percent. There was some discussion on closures on the West Coast of the North Island. He summed up rather grimly: "The outlook does not look good." Ken Bedford, Transpower, gave an interesting talk on contact@marinedesign.co.nz | www.marinedesign.co.nz July/August 2013 Professional Skipper 37