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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LETTERS CONTINUED fleet of ships on its register has allowed the fleet to almost disappear and the associated pool of maritime expertise to drain away, so that now, as you say, with the demise of our coastal fleet we are almost entirely dependent on foreign flag shipping, some of it substandard and manned by crews with questionable training. More and more freight is being moved on our roads, which are expensive to maintain and have high social and environmental costs. In contrast, maritime transport uses a natural way and is the least environmentally polluting form of modern transport. Australia is now taking steps to rectify a similar weakening of their maritime transport situation and in September the Australian government announced: "the most far-reaching overhaul of our shipping industry ever undertaken". The package, aimed at keeping the Australian shipping industry from being "lost forever", is set to commence on July 1, 2012. It has four key elements: 1 tax reforms to remove barriers to investment in Australian shipping and to foster global competitiveness 2 a simplified three-tier licensing framework for participation in coastal trade 3 an Australian International Shipping Register to put local companies on a level footing with their international competitors, and 4 the establishment of a Maritime Workforce Development Forum to progress key maritime skills and training priorities. Why can't New Zealand follow this example? As with its already 12-year-old Oceans Policy, Australia sets another maritime example for New Zealand. What, one asks yet again, is the New Zealand government – what are we – doing to prevent our skeletal coastal shipping industry from being "lost forever". Instead of moving freight onto ocean highways, we put up with more trucks, more congestion, more death and destruction on our roads. Developing our limited pool of maritime expertise is also sorely needed, especially when regulation of our large EEZ is considered. We should also establish a Maritime Workforce Development Forum to progress key maritime skills and training priorities? Another cry for more collaboration with our maritime friends across the Tasman! It is essential that New Zealand undertakes a far-reaching overhaul of its shipping industry and expands its minimal pool of maritime expertise. Rod Short, GlobalMET Limited, Waikanae Dear Sir Regarding the recent Schelde Trader grounding at the Port of Tauranga, there have been three serious groundings in the same location as a result of ships losing directional control at a critical point of the pilotage: the Schelde Trader, the Hanjin Bombay in 2010 and the Caribic in 2000. This shows that in practice, the port's plans to prevent such an occurrence are inadequate. Sure, they have plans for emergency response and pollution control. However, the objective is the prevention of a grounding, rather than mopping up afterwards. These three incidents were easily preventable. To this day, ships transit one of the most critical areas of the shipping channel where the groundings occurred unassisted or escorted by harbour tugs. This is a foolhardy practice in light of the previous groundings. There are rocks on the Mount Maunganui side and equally hazardous shallows on the Matakana side, combined with strong, cross-channel tidal flows. 4 Professional Skipper January/February 2012 A ship can lose directional control for any number of reasons and without immediate tug assistance a grounding in this area is inevitable. This risk is unacceptable and should not be tolerated by a responsible port operator. It appears the port has been playing a "numbers game", blindly relying on the probability of these events not occurring. Unfortunately, they have been proved wrong for the third time. The Port of Tauranga has the resources to address this issue by utilising its powerful harbour tugs in an escort capacity, but chose not to do so. A hint of the arrogance within the organisation and its attitude toward outside authority may partly explain this and is evident in the Transport Accident Investigation Commission's report on the Caribic grounding. There, the port's chief executive officer dismisses the TAIC's recommendations. It has only been by luck that the groundings above did not result in a major pollution event. The scenario of a loaded tank ship or large vessel with full bunkers grounding under similar conditions is very real and the port management is well aware of this. Think of the impact this ship would have had if she had broken on the rocks of the mount, disgorging her toxic heavy oil into our harbour and sea. The main shipping channel would be blocked, stifling the port and the regional economy. It would make the Rena incident look like a cup of spilt milk. It is understandable why local iwi and all stakeholders in general are concerned by the way in which their pristine harbour environment is being mismanaged and put at risk. Do not accept from the port that accidents like this "just happen " and per 3000 yearly ship movements this is okay. The next TAIC report (which the port may well ignore) is not going to prevent another potential disaster in our harbour. All accidents are preventable and the port company must change its operating procedures and protect our environment with all the due care the people of Tauranga demand. D Shackle, Tauranga, (Acknowledged nom de plume) Dear Sir I am writing this article because the situation as it exists was totally preventable. When it became known that the Rena had run aground, all Maritime New Zealand had to do was contact the Port of Tauranga to organise two freighters, fuel hose, buoys to keep the hose afloat and a harbour board tug to go to Astrolabe Reef, hook up to the Rena and onto the fuel inlet connection onboard the freighter. This would have emptied the Rena in a matter of hours. The Royal New Zealand Navy refuels at sea in most sea states, why can't a ship be emptied high and dry in a flat sea? Too easy. The media, including talkback radio, had been sucked in by PR spin stating that the oil has to be heated before it can be pumped, BS to that. This is classic damage control because of gross incompetence by both Maritime NZ and the government. Two years after the Mikhail Lermentov sank, divers attached fuel hoses to the wreck at a depth of 45m and emptied the fuel tanks. So much for cold oil. Now that is now past tense there is the problem of floating containers. This will prove to be advantageous, as floating containers can be spotted from the air and logged via GPS, when the seas settle pick them out of the water by divers and crane barge. People including myself are angry that these situations will