LETTERS CONTINUED… who they think have no option but to obey!
Now is the time to stand out from the crowd – exercise the freedom of choice, hard won in WWII as RG Smith has! If you can't give up your day job and your conscience is pricking here's a plan:
Step one, call your MP and vent your spleen. Then go to step two, write to Professional Skipper with your comment and your name withheld. Then step three, repeat step one. And, if you love your job with MNZ or MOF, don't smile and say 'hello good day', to us and don't shake our hands! Our small businesses are being extorted to pay for, amongst other things, your fat salaries! Stef Railey and Wayne Radford, RnR Charters Ltd, Mangawhai
MORE DISASTERS? Dear Sir
I followed the Inquest into the Oyang 70 deaths with some interest. The news reports revealed, but did not enlarge on, another adverse aspect of FCV usage: the low standards of fish quality involved. When the huge (fatally so), catch was being hauled in, the factory deck was already full of fish from a previous tow(s?). Had they succeeded in getting the bag in question on board, it would have been kept at ambient temperature for far too long before being processed, a bad start for a sequence that would have involved freezing and thawing twice, before being sold as a "Product of New Zealand". Only last week another infamous name reared its ugly head: Oyang 77. Twenty years ago, she steamed onto the beach at Waitangi, Chatham Islands, despite the best efforts of locals to get the master to turn back. Now she is at the centre of
investigations into dumping and other offences. How many more disasters are we going to see before these people are stopped?
R Lea Clough, Ohoka
PHASE OUT FCVs Dear Sir
The news about the phase-out of FCVs has now overtaken my previous letter but I think that a suitable postscript should be added as follows:
Since writing, I have become aware of the decision to phase out FCVs, however, my last question is still relevant. The news that they are on borrowed time is unlikely to inject good seamanship, ethics, morality and responsibility into any people: kiwis ashore and foreigners afloat, to whom such concepts are alien. Similarly, the previous laxity of the government departments involved is unlikely to turn into competent zeal overnight. The end may be in sight, but we shall have another four years of bad treatment of deckhands and our environment, as well as the usual fisheries offences on a grand scale.
R Lea Clough, Ohoka
ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN
HERE'S ANOTHER ACCIDENT waiting to happen. Paddle boarders are really pushing their luck when crossing our busy harbour, but the other day I was skippering the ferry Seaway and about halfway between Motuihe and Kennedy Point I spied a paddle boarder some 4 boat lengths right ahead. Luckily, the Seamaster had seen her after they had left Kennedy Point and had warned me, otherwise I may not have seen her as she had no bright clothing on. It's a worry isn't it!
Mike Pigneguy, Relief Master
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6 Professional Skipper July/August 2012
VIP.S81
