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At present their compliance to the International Maritime Organisation, our safety standards and fisheries laws remains suspect at best, given the current state of most vessels and the level of fog that seems to prevail around who is responsible for what, with the charter companies and owners equally pointing fingers. What has become very clear with the evil finger of responsibility pointing straight at them is the quality of the surveyors inspecting these ships over the past decades. The term rust bucket comes to mind Worse still, we see reputable leading fishing companies deciding to maximise the economic return to shareholders by shifting their quota/annual catch entitlement to FCVs because they can make a higher commercial return on their investment and thus ignore the greater economic benefit to the nation. This is a sad indictment of our quota system. On the one hand, Maori now own some 42 percent of our fisheries quota with a significant amount of it in the deepwater fishery. On the other hand, we have young Maori who want to go to sea and fish but who cannot get their hands on quota/ACE, even at a fair price. So they languish ashore and rely on the WINZ handouts to stay out of trouble. Our deepwater fishery is a sitter for employment for young Maori and we are letting a few fishing lords who control the deepwater catch and FCVs deny them this opportunity. The problem with the FCV charter fleet approach is we are encouraging the use of substandard ships, most of which are well past their effective use-by date, to fish some of New Zealand's most inhospitable waters, with all the inherent risks. If our recent spate of ship losses is anything to go by, it will remain a legacy of these past, ill-founded decisions. One of the more serious concerns lost in all this debate is the large number of FCVs operating without observer coverage. Old records and even current Ministry of Fisheries observer records clearly show crew behaviour and catch records improve markedly on foreign charter vessels which carry observers when compared with similar vessels fishing the same waters for the same species with no observers on board. • It should be a requirement of doing business that all FCVs must have 100 percent observer coverage, paid for by the charter company. • The problem is that conditions on board are so poor that most self-respecting observers refuse to sail on the ships. • The result is once they are out of sight and out of mind, these vessels become a law unto themselves. This part of the fishing scandal was only exposed following the recent crew desertions. Meanwhile, there have been rumblings from within the seafood industry and MFish regarding the ministry outsourcing its observer programme to the seafood industry or approved independent contractors. This option runs the inherent risk of being compared to putting the fox in charge of the hen house. The observer programme's role is two-fold – to gather vital and robust catch information and to ensure compliance. The two go hand-in-hand. I believe the observer programme should come under the Ministry of Fisheries' compliance team, and the observers should hold the necessary powers of a Fisheries Officer to enable them to record catch data and gather robust evidence to effect compliance when required through the courts. It is time the government ensured these vessels meet the same standards expected of any New Zealand-flagged vessel. 26 Professional Skipper January/February 2012 observers refuse to sail on them, the vessel should be detained until brought up to our living and operational standards or be deported to whence she came. These ships are becoming a growing liability and remain a threat to our clean, green environmental image around our coast and in particular the sensitive Southern Ocean. We have several FCVs in port at the moment undergoing essential maintenance. What is obvious to all is that a large amount of work is being carried out on these Korean vessels this year, far more than previous years, including lots of plate work around stern areas and much in the underwater areas as well. I also understand a lot is being done to improve the crew's living conditions. Well done. My guess is all the recent media exposure and the shame of the continuing number of desertions might have something to do with the increased activity of the local maritime safety inspectors and surveyors on these ships. The appointment of a permanent maritime safety inspector by Maritime NZ in this area may have gone a long way to enforcing the upgrading of standards. We also understand several safe ship management companies are now involved. Also of note is the number of Korean and New Zealand charter companies who may be complaining to Maritime NZ about the higher level of enforcement being expected. Without a clear direction from the government, these vessels would have continued to operate over the horizon with impunity. In the interest of seafarer safety, one can only hope the ministerial inquiry will be brave enough to make strong, enduring recommendations that the government must implement. There is no doubt in my mind that the responsibility for the state of this shoddy fleet and yes, maybe the recent loss of lives in the Southern Ocean, rests squarely on the shoulders of these tardy surveyors, who failed to ensure the crew followed even the rudimentary minimum safety standards. From the enginerooms to the deck, those who should know better ignored unsafe machinery and ship safety standards. The ships in many cases are an OSH nightmare, and when we hear of bilge oil- water separators being bypassed and waste oil being dumped at sea, one's blood starts to boil. Irrespective of whether this took place in our pristine Southern Ocean, this sort of practice should never exist anywhere in the world. I am resisting the urge to suggest corruption, but one has to consider whether these surveyors have either had their eyes painted on or were totally incompetent. It is highly unlikely many of these vessels would ever meet the new Marine Operator Safety System (MOSS) standards Maritime New Zealand is about to introduce unless they have some serious work done. Even then, some may be past the point of redemption, in which case Maritime New Zealand should just detain the vessel. If the fishing ship fails to meet the prescribed standards or our If observers refuse to sail, the vessel should be detained until she meets our standards or is sent home