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
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/50910
WATERWAYS – Waterfront Business In brief… Sealord changes foreign charter vessels policy The fishing company Sealord says all its foreign charter vessels, or FCVs now have at least one New Zealand-based Sealord employee on board for the duration of voyages. Under the new policy, introduced on November 1, these employees will monitor labour and fishing standards and ensure the skipper complies with New Zealand law and maintains Sealord's standards. The company currently charters three Ukrainian-crewed FCVs in New Zealand waters, in addition to its own fleet of nine vessels. Sealord says its FCV standards are the highest in the industry, with health and safety, labour conditions and fishing practices required to be the same as those on its New Zealand vessels. The chief executive officer, Graham Stuart, says FCV use is declining but the vessels provide flexibility "and specialist capability." The company says it delivers over $500 million of seafood to people in more than 60 countries and employs more than 1500 people. Review highlights flaws in tuna fishery An independent adjudicator has remanded the Marine Stewardship Council certification for skipjack tuna from Nauru and neighbouring nations. The ruling, released on November 23, found the final report filed by Intertek Moody Marine, Inc. did not identify the Parties to the Nauru Agreement's share of the region's skipjack catch accurately and consistently. The certifier had no scientific basis to conclude PNA could manage the entire migratory stock. The adjudicator determined that the certification must be sent back to the assessment team due to factual mistakes that rendered the initial decision arbitrary and unreasonable. The parties are the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. The MSC standard for a well-managed fishery is one where the target stock is managed throughout its range. "In order to improve the sustainability of Pacific tuna stocks, it is essential that the region raise its collective standards," said the president of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, Susan Jackson. "This is not a failure of the PNA. It is an opportunity for these nations to set a standard all nations should meet," Jackson said. 40 Professional Skipper January/February 2012 NATIVE BIRDS THRIVING JUST 10 WEEKS after being released on Rangitoto and Motutapu Islands, a small flock of rare saddlebacks, or tieke, have paired up and started hatching chicks. "We're over the moon," says Department of Conservation ranger Hazel Speed. "So far we've got four tieke chicks, two on Motutapu and two on Rangitoto." Twenty saddlebacks were released near Home Bay on Motutapu Island on August 27 and another 20 on Rangitoto Island a day later. Speed said the chicks were all in good shape and had been weighed and individually identified by placing bands on their legs. "Rangitoto's volcanic landscape is completely different from Tiritiri Matangi where all these birds have come from." Their release marked the announcement by the Minister of Conservation, Kate Wilkinson, that DoC had successfully removed nine animal pests from the both islands. Students at Long Bay College on Auckland's North Shore had built 31 nesting boxes and 100 roosting boxes for the saddlebacks in an area of native bush planted by volunteers. Four takahe, two females and two males, were also released on Motutapu on August 27, and Speed says they have also settled into their new home. Each bird has a transmitter with its own unique signal and they have been tracked across the island. There are only 250 takahe in the world. The island's grassland habitat provides a good feeding ground and it is hoped up to 20 breeding pairs will be established. Takahe were thought to be extinct until they were rediscovered in Fiordland in 1948. Slowing VLCCs could lift utilisation rates SLOW-STEAMING VERY large crude carriers, or VLCCs, at an average speed of 12 knots could increase fleet utilisation to 98 percent and absorb surplus tonnage from the market, says ICAP Shipping. Many shipowners were slowing their ships to reduce fuel consumption and therefore operating costs to offset low freight rates and the cost of bunker fuel. "Owners have managed to significantly improve earnings by slowing down during the ballast leg or even sharing some of their savings with the charterer for the laden leg," the company said in its November research report. By comparison, if all VLCCs sailed at 14 knots, fleet utilisation would average around 87 percent this year and drop again in 2012 as new ships entered service. Bunker prices had remained over $600 per tonne since February, despite the decline in oil prices, the report said. After deducting bunker costs, shipowner's profits had fallen to "near-zero" levels.