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Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have drafted a Port State Control (PSC) agreement, aimed at eradicating sub-standard ships from the region.
The nations, at a meeting in Manama, Bahrain, held from 7 to 9 June 1999, agreed on a preliminary draft text of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Port State Control for the ROPME Sea Area (RSA) and agreed to draft complementary training programs for its implementation.
ROPME is the Regional Organisation for the Protection of the Marine Environment, and its members are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The meeting was organised by the Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Centre (MEMAC), Bahrain in cooperation with the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) and IMO. Representatives from the United Nations Environment Program Regional Office for West Africa (UNEP/ ROWA) also attended.
The meeting follows the successful establishment of other regional PSC agreements in different parts of the world. The first was established by the Paris MOU in 1982, and since then others have been formed in Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. The first preparatory meeting towards establishing a PSC regime in West and Central Africa was held in February 1998.
Many of IMO’s technical conventions contain regulations enabling governments to inspect foreign ships visiting their ports to make sure that they meet IMO standards. This process is known as Port State control, and experience has shown that it is most effective when co-ordinated on a regional basis.
A second meeting to continue preparations for establishing the ROPME MOU is to be organised in the future but no date has yet been fixed.
MEMAC offered to host the interim Secretariat and Information Centre at the centre in Bahrain, but the matter will be decided at a future meeting.
Six regional agreements cover the world’s oceans, with only three exceptions: West and Central Africa (the finalised MOU is expected to be adopted later in 1999); the ROPME Sea Area and finally the Black Sea, for which a first preparatory meeting has been scheduled for September 1999.
Port State control is seen as a crucial step towards the eradication of sub-standard ships. By allowing the inspection of foreign-flagged vessels, it can act as a safety-net when ship-owners, classification societies, insurers or flag State administrators have in one way or another failed to do their job.
Courtesy IMO News
A Marine Environment. Protection Committee (MEPC) working group of the International Maritime Organisation continued developing draft new regulations for ballast water management.
The proposed new regulations are intended to address the environmental damage caused by the introduction of harmful aquatic organisms in ballast water, used to stabilise vessels at sea. Globally, it is estimated that about 10 billion tonnes of ballast water are transferred each year.
The water taken on board for ballasting a vessel may contain aquatic organisms, including dormant stages of microscopic toxic aquatic organisms - such as dinoflagellates, which may cause harmful algal blooms after their release. In addition, pathogens such as the bacterium Vibrio cholerae (cholera) have been transported with ballast water. As ships travel faster and faster, the survival rates of species carried in ballast tanks have increased. As a result, many introductions of non-indigenous organisms in new locations have occurred, often with disastrous consequences for the local ecosystem - which may include important fish stocks or rare species.
The working group reviewed a number of key issues based on the current proposed draft regulations, with progress reported in achieving consensus on the content of certain draft regulations. However a number of important issues and aspects remain open for further consideration, including:
• the preferred approach to applications - whether the globalised approach, the designation of Ballast Water Management Areas, or other approaches;
• development of a range of standards, e.g. for evaluation and acceptance of new ballast-water management and control options;
• development of a regionalisation concept; and
• the extent of application of the provisions to some categories of vessels, such as fishing vessels, pleasure boats, etc.
The overall outline of a draft legal instrument was prepared and some draft text was developed, but the Committee agreed that preparation of the instrument was not sufficiently advanced to be able to propose (to the IMO Council which meets prior to the Assembly in November) the holding of a diplomatic conference to adopt an instrument in the next biennium (2000-2001).
The issue will remain a high priority item in the work program and the Committee agreed that the Working Group on Ballast Water should continue its work at the next session.
Options for introducing the proposed regulations include:
• a new Annex to MARPOL 73/78; and
• a completely new convention on ballast water management, under which the terms for entry into force would be determined by a Conference, instead of having to comply with existing terms established by MARPOL 73178.
Current options for preventing the spread of harmful aquatic organisms in ballast water include exchanging the ballast water in deep ocean, where there is less marine life and where organisms are less likely to survive. Other options include various treatments (filtration, thermo, chemical, radiation) of the ballast water en route to kill the organisms.
Courtesy IMO News
Austal Ships’ production of the 38-metre Bay Class series patrol boats, designed and customised for the requirements of the Australian Customs Service National Marine Fleet, continues to schedule.
The first in the series of eight, Roebuck Bay, was deployed in February, with the latest two, Holdfast Bay and Botany Bay, following on time in August 1999.
The 38-metre aluminium-hulled patrol boats have a range of 1000 nautical miles at 20 knots and are capable of operation around Australia’s 37,000 kilometre coastline and out to the edge of the 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zone.
Propulsion is by twin 1050kW MRU 16V 2000 M70 diesels driving fixed pitch Veem propellers via Reintjes gearboxes. Two Cummins auxiliaries meet the normal electrical load with an Australian manufactured 12kVA Sea Wasp emergency generator housed within the funnel structure.
Tasks commonly performed by these sophisticated craft include:
• surveillance and response operations for a range of clients;
• intelligence/information gathering;
• interception of suspect illegal entrant vessels and suspect illegal fishing vessels;
• search and rescue; and
• protection of territorial waters.
The medium speed Bay Class patrol boats (21 knots at 80 per cent NCR) have the ability to maintain speeds of less than five knots for extended periods as required for surveillance operations. The ability to launch one or both of the custom-built tenders fully loaded in up to sea State 4 enables the Australian Customs Service to perform a large variety of functions, from intercepting unauthorised vessels, smugglers and illegal immigrants to assisting with scientific and marine research.
The tenders can also be launched and recovered safely and effectively while the vessel is making way at up to five knots.
Building on its experience with Bay Class vessels, Austal has developed various armament and propulsion configurations that can be readily applied to create a fast attack craft capable of speeds in excess of 40 nots.
For further information contact: Austal Ships, 100 Clarence Beach Road, Henderson, WA 6166, phone (08) 94 10 1111, fax (08) 9410 2564.
The passage of the Fisheries Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 1999 (FLAB) through Parliament in September this year will provide AFMA with greater powers in dealing with illegal, unregulated and unreported foreign fishing both inside the Australian fishing zone (AFZ) and out on the high seas.
There has been rising concern for some time over the ongoing activities of illegal foreign vessels fishing illegally in the AFZ, particularly in relation to AFMA managed fish resources in remote areas, such as our sub-Antarctic Territories and off north-western Australia. In the sub-Antarctic alone, illegal fishing costs the Australian industry potentially tens of millions of dollars per year and AFMA is keen to strengthen measures to deter such activities.
In addition, unsustainable fishing on the high seas has a direct impact on the sustainability of stocks on which our domestic industry relies. Some fish species important to Australia are distributed beyond the limits of the AFZ, either straddling the AFZ boundary and the adjacent high seas, for example orange roughy and Patagonian toothfish, or migrating through our fishing zone, including highly migratory stocks such as southern bluefin tuna and other tuna and billfish. The UN Fish Stocks Agreement was drafted out of international concern for the sustainability of these stocks and was signed by Australia when it was first opened for signature in 1995. The new legislation will enable Australia to ratify the Agreement and thereby enjoy all the rights of the Agreement while also having to meet obligations under it.
The new legislation consists of two Schedules. Schedule 1 relates to new forfeiture and enforcement powers to combat illegal foreign fishing. These measures are aimed at ensuring more effective fisheries surveillance and enforcement within the AFZ and are expected to come into force early in 2000. Schedule 2 relates to implementing obligations necessary to ratify the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and will not commence until the Agreement comes into force, following ratification by thirty countries.
Illegal fishers, particularly those in the sub-Antarctic, are highly organised and adaptable operators chasing very valuable fish in extremely harsh conditions. The legislative amendments double penalties for illegal foreign fishing and, in doing so, recognise the high value of such fisheries to Australia, the large profits to be made by illegal operators and the high costs of foreign vessel enforcement.
Both Schedules of the Bill address the growing issue of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. Illegal fishing occurs when foreign fishing vessels operate within the Australian fishing zone without authorisation. Unregulated and unreported fishing occurs on the high seas where fisheries management arrangements, established to manage particular stocks, are ignored or not supported.
Amendments under Schedule 1 will provide for a more effective catch, gear and boat forfeiture scheme to deter illegal foreign fishing in the AFZ.
As a result of legislative changes under Schedule 1 of the amendments, Australian fisheries officers will be able to seize foreign boats, fishing gear or catch which will be automatically forfeited to the Commonwealth as a result of illegal fishing in the AFZ. Illegal foreign fishers will have to justify their presence in the AFZ. AFMA will also be able to take action, outside the AFZ, against motherships that support illegal foreign fishers within the AFZ.
Fisheries officers will have power to use reasonable force when apprehending foreign boats suspected of illegal fishing. Such force could include firing at or into a ship after appropriate warning shots have been fired.
Provisions to implement the Fish Stocks Agreement, contained in Schedule 2 of the amendments, will provide a framework to address the wider problem of unregulated and unreported fishing on the high seas.
The amendments will enable Australian fisheries officers to board and inspect fishing vessels on the high seas to check compliance with regionally agreed management and
conservation measures. These amendments, however, will not come into effect until the UN Fish Stocks Agreement comes into force, following ratification by thirty countries.
Once the Agreement comes into force members will be required to take on flag state responsibility for vessels carrying their flag. This responsibility will involve regulating the activities of those vessels to ensure that they operate in accordance with the principles of the Agreement and any regional conservation and management measures. Australian vessels will require authority from AFMA to fish on the high seas and will be required to adhere to conservation and management measures applied by AFMA.
For further information please contact Mr Paul Ryan, Manager, Compliance Strategy, AFMA, on telephone (02) 6272 5266.
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MarStudies/1999/12.html