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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WATERWAYS – Waterfront Business In brief… Over and out for marine radio boss The president of Marlborough Marine Radio, Dave Baker, is standing down after holding the post for 16 years. The service has 2000 subscribers and seven operators. It owns marine channels 01, 05, 63, 65 and 66 and broadcasts regular weather forecasts, monitors trip reports and helps with medical assistance. Baker said the family had used marine radio to make calls from their home at Cape Jackson as the telephone connection was often poor. People then started calling for information on the weather, Baker said. Picton Small Craft Marine Radio amalgamated with the family's radio channel to form Marlborough Marine Radio in the 1980s. Baker will remain immediate past president. "It's just time for a change." He and his wife, Sandra, were awarded honorary life memberships for their contribution to the organisation. The new chairman is Peter Broad. Standards will improve finfish quality New ISO standards applying to finfish will help improve food safety by specifying the information to be recorded about their origin and nature. The standard, ISO 12875:2011 Traceability of finfish products, deals with the distribution for human consumption of marine-captured finfish and their products, from catch through to retailers or caterers. They must also state what the finished finfish products are made of and what happened to them. "ISO 12875:2011 provides a generic basis for traceability and will help to guarantee the health protection of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade of finfish products," said Rolf Duus, the secretary of the working group that developed the standard. Potential users of the new standard include: • fishing vessels • vessel-landing businesses and auction markets • processors • transporters and storers • traders and wholesalers, and • retailers and caterers. A similar standard for farmed finfish distribution chains has also been introduced. ISO 12877:2011 Traceability of finfish products, specifies the information to be recorded in farmed finfish distribution chains. 42 Professional Skipper January/February 2012 MARITIME UNION STILL IN DISPUTE PORTS OF AUCKLAND has lost a major client as a result of an industrial dispute with members of the New Zealand Maritime Union. Maersk's Southern Star container service comprised about 52 ship calls per year and generated almost $20 million or around 11 percent of POAL's annual revenue. The ships will now berth at Tauranga. Auckland's Northern Star service was not affected. Operations resumed at the Bledisloe and Fergusson container terminals on December 5 after shutting down for four days. A second bout of industrial action was due to start later in the week. The strike involved 327 of the port's 500 employees and disrupted the handling of 4700 containers. Four ships bypassed Auckland and called into Tauranga or Wellington. Delivering this cargo to Auckland by road WASSP adds to its sting THE MARINE ELECTRONICS company WASSP Ltd expanded its senior management on October 10 with the appointment of Ian McDonald as general manager. The new role will see McDonald overseeing WASSP's international sales and marketing strategy for its multi-beam sonar products. McDonald, who is originally from Glasgow, Scotland, was formerly vice-president corporate Ian McDonald development for Foster Moore Limited. He has worked with over 300 technology and life science companies and research institutions in the United Kingdom and around the world. He holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Imperial College, London, specialising in the management of innovation. WASSP's chief executive officer, Gareth Hodson, says McDonald's appointment strengthens its position as the market leader in multi-beam sonar technology. "The opportunity to grow the WASSP brand in the global market is huge. From what I see, WASSP globally is very competitive and is leading the market," McDonald said. WET AND CLOUDY MONTH OCTOBER WAS WET and cloudy for many regions, with easterly winds prevailing, says the NIWA National Climate Centre. Of the six main centres , Auckland was the warmest, Tauranga the sunniest, Hamilton the wettest and Dunedin the driest and coolest. The highest temperature was 26.8˚C at Motueka on October 21 and the lowest was -5˚C at Tara Hills on October 9. Over the country, temperatures were above average on the West Coast and northern half of the North Island and below average for the eastern South Island. The highest rainfall over a single day was 166mm at North Egmont on October 3. It was very wet in the north and west of the North Island and the north and east of the South Island, and very dry in Gisborne. The highest gust recorded was 183kph at Southwest Cape, Stewart Island, on October 24. and rail could take several days. The dispute is over POAL's collective agreement. It says the offer to the union of a 2.5 percent pay rise and a signing bonus of $200 in lieu of back pay is fair in the current climate. An informed source told Professional Skipper the union claimed some hourly rates paid to the seven independent stevedores were higher than those paid to its members. According to the source, full-time stevedores at POAL earned an average of $91,480 for the year ended June 30, and 28 percent (43 individuals) earned over $100,000. Shift workers receive five weeks of annual leave. Inflexible and old work practices mean labour utilisation at POAL is about 65 percent compared with about 80 percent at Tauranga.