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/56633
LETTERS Letters to the editor are encouraged from readers who wish to say nice things, raise an industry concern or even get something off their chest. Letters are published in good faith and may be abridged if too verbose or on the edge of being libellous. In fact, in 15 years we have only refused to publish two letters. For this reason, while we will protect an author's identity if requested by "name withheld on request", letters must be clearly marked by name and address, signed or emailed as verification of authenticity. Letters not clearly signed may not see the light of day. INITIAL RESPONSE Dear Sir I wish to comment on David Ledson's article in the January/ February issue of Professional Skipper. His assertion that leadership was the key to dealing with the response to the Rena stranding combined with skills and expertise is correct. However, this was all sadly lacking in the critical first few days after the grounding. Maritime New Zealand was floundering from the outset without any technical understanding of the situation. They did not have one person in senior management with any marine experience or qualifications to initiate any practical responses. Indeed it was only with the arrival of the salvors that any meaningful response occurred. It also required two ex-employees to be recruited who were qualified and technically knowledgeable to give credibility to Maritime NZ's news reports after the meaningless stalling commentary during the first days. Immediately after the grounding, Maritime NZ should have requisitioned the Awanuia and sailed her straight for Tauranga to discharge her cargo to the shore facilities and stand by to receive the Rena's fuel. The Maritime NZ director had the power to requisition the tanker, but left the salvors to negotiate with the mercenary Ports of Auckland, which created an unnecessary delay. Maritime NZ's statements that it is difficult to discharge fuel from a cargo vessel like the Rena and that she was not ready for fuel transfer may strike a chord with lay people. But in truth it would take very little effort by the ship's crew to change the pipe work in the engineroom and use the fuel oil transfer pumps to discharge the fuel. If they could not, there were plenty of options ashore to help fabricate flanges and pipe work to suit. It should be remembered that during these first few days of calm weather the ship's infrastructure, including pumps, generators and critical pipelines, was still basically intact. (We were told they had managed to discharge three wing tanks back to five wing tanks). The oil was still warm and probably still capable of being heated, the crew was still on board and available to assist, indeed they were rumoured to have been ready to discharge the fuel oil on the second day. Let there be no doubt, the fuel oil should have been removed from the Rena during those critical first few days of good weather, had Maritime NZ shown leadership and some understanding of the urgency required in this situation. This would have saved a month of arduous and often dangerous work for the salvaging team. It is more of a concern to those of us in the industry that the chairman of Maritime NZ states he is satisfied with the response, particularly where he has the benefit of hindsight. In truth, Maritime NZ instructed the owners to employ a salvor and then effectively stood back and contributed very little to the oil recovery and salvage operation. His gratitude for Catherine Taylor's efforts during her five- year tenure as director is also at odds with my peer's opinions in the maritime industry. During this time we have experienced a continual dumbing down of marine qualification standards, where the oil industry was not required to contribute to the depleted oil pollution levy, failure to ratify IMO conventions which will cap the insurer's liability for the clean-up to half what it should be and the removal of all marine qualified people in managerial positions in Maritime NZ. This has been highlighted by a damning audit that there is a need to employ more marine qualified personnel within Maritime NZ, which has not been addressed. If Maritime NZ with its huge staff cannot execute an initial response to maritime disasters without waiting for outside marine consultants to take over, they can be viewed as another unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and in my opinion could be replaced by a call centre in India. Captain Heath Smart, Tauranga TAX MAN Dear Sir After reading the information in the January/February issue I did some snooping of my own and it's scary. If we are honest and don't live in a tourist hot-spot, count up SUBSCRIBE NOW! Be sure to get your copy of Professional Skipper direct by mail Please include NZ Workboat Review for 2007 @ $10.50 available now Please include NZ Workboat Review for 2006 @ $5.00 available now ■ Please include NZ Workboat Review 2008, 2009 & 2010, 2011 @ $5.00 each, available now Visa/Mastercard (other cards not accepted) Card Number __________________________________________________________________ Card Name ___________________________________________________________________ Signature _________________________________________________ Expiry date _____/_____ ■ $65.00 1 year – includes NZ Workboat Review 2013 ($105 Australia + Asia, $145 Rest of World) ■ $125.00 2 year – includes NZ Workboat Review 2013 & 2014 ■ Please include NZ Workboat Review 2012 @ $11.50 available now $65.00 1 year – includes NZ Workboat Review 2009 ($98 Australia + Asia, $135 Rest of World) $125 2 years – includes NZ Workboat Review 2009 & 2010 Please include NZ Workboat Review 2008 @ $10.50 available now Please include NZ Workboat Review 2007 @ $5.00 available now GST No: 68-684-757 Name _______________________________________________________________________ Address ______________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Postal code ________ Email _______________________________________________________________________ ENCOSE A CHEQUE FOR __________________________________________________________ Be in the draw for a fine oil painting of the NZ barque Louisa Craig by marine artist Paul Deacon. Valued at $1000. www.marineartgallery.net.nz March/April 2012 Professional Skipper 3