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In keeping with the shift to integrated marine resource management, the Australian Maritime College has established the new Graduate School of Marine Resource Management (GSMRM). The GSMRM will offer a Master of Business Administration (Marine Resource Management) commencing this year.
The MBA has been designed by experienced professional resource managers in a way that provides in-depth exposure to all relevant disciplines. Students will be steeped in contemporary issues such as Ecologically Sustainable Development, Recreational Fisheries Management, Indigenous and Customary Usage. High-profile guest lecturers will help maintain the currency of the course material and promote active exchange of views on current issues.
The MRM program has three semesters per year, a system which allows greater flexibility to structure the study program to align with a student’s work or personal commitments. Another innovation is the introduction of accelerated learning formats for selected subjects.
The accelerated learning subjects each involve five day intensive live-in courses with some post-course assessment required. Each completed subject gains a subject credit in the MRM program. Flexibility in delivery is emphasised with the provision of extensive resource materials, complementing lectures, discussion groups and guest presentations. Depending on demand, the program will be delivered in Launceston, Darwin, Townsville, Sydney and Singapore.
Subjects can also be completed on a distance education basis and undertaken in any of the semesters. The three semester system allows students to either complete three subjects per year or alternatively allows a semester to be missed when other commitments do not allow enough time for study.
Upon satisfactory completion of four subjects. the participant is eligible for a Graduate Certificate, with completion of any other four subjects leading to a Graduate Diploma. Certificates and Diplomas are available in eight specialist areas including fisheries management. seafood management, aquaculture management and aquatic resources administration.
An MBA is awarded on the completion of a further four subjects, the completion of six MBA core subjects and an 8000 to 10,000 word dissertation.
For further information contact the Australian Maritime College, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Environment, PO Box 986, Launceston TAS 7250, phone (03) 6335 4440, fax (03) 6335 4459, email amcinfo@mariner.amc.edu.au.
Courtesy: Professional Fisherman
At the 19th International Bunker Conference in London, BP Marine presented its leadership stance on the contentious issue of used lubricating oil (ULO) in bunker fuel. Since then the industry has made significant progress on the effects of ULO on onboard equipment.
BP Marine has carried out a joint project with the centrifuge manufacturer Alfa Laval (Marine & Power), to investigate the effects on centrifuge performance of adding used lubricating oil to marine residual fuel.
This involved the centrifuging of approximately 45 mt of fuel through three different centrifuge models with varying levels (up to five per cent) of ULO added. The results of the study were presented to the CIMAC and ISO Working Groups contributing to the revision of the ISO 8217 Standard, and to the 20th International Bunker Conference, by BP Marine’s Dr Donald Coghill in Oslo during October last year.
The conclusions from the BP Marine/Alfa-Laval study are:
• The addition of even quite small amounts of ULO causes some deterioration in centrifuge efficiency, which becomes more pronounced with the increased concentration of ULO in fuel.
• Reduction in centrifuge efficiency with respect to silicon and aluminium removal is more pronounced when sea water is present in the fuel.
• The addition of five per cent ULO to a fuel increases the ash content after purification by at least 50 per cent.
BP Marine’s technical manager John Liddy said: ‘We have consistently argued, and will continue to strongly argue, at the CIMAC and ISO committees that addition of any substance to fuels which has an adverse effect on the crucial fuel cleaning process onboard ship is unacceptable.
‘In our view, therefore, the future revision of the ISO 8217 standard must include firm and unambiguous controls to limit or preferably eliminate the inclusion of ULO in bunker fuels.’
This is the first time such a comprehensive project has been undertaken on this topic and the first time the industry has had rigorous technical data on a realistic marine fuel to assist in the debate. BP Marine has already received messages of very strong support and appreciation from their customers who have been given the opportunity to view the data. Many shipowners have expressed considerable surprise to hear these views on ULO control being put forward by an oil company.
Courtesy: Australasian Ships and Ports
The right of appropriately licensed commercial fishermen to work in Torres Strait without interference has been confirmed by the Federal Government.
In response to representations by QCFO, Attorney-General Daryl Williams said commercial fishermen had the right to work ‘without harassment’.
This follows a series of incidents involving Murray Islanders and commercial fishermen in the Torres Strait region.
QCFO President Ted Loveday contacted several Federal and State Ministers in recent months over the issue.
In a letter to Mr Williams, Mr Loveday said, ‘Torres Strait Islanders have publicly made false claims that they have the right to take up arms following a further stay of a court case where two Murray Islanders have been charged with stealing fish from a commercial fishing operation in Torres Strait.
‘QCFO requests that every possible action be taken to ensure this matter is the subject of appeal in the very near future or, failing that, ensuring appropriate legislative action is taken urgently to address any legal problems that may be at the core of this issue.
‘Ongoing agitation by certain elements in the Torres Strait is leading to heightened concern by commercial fishermen for their safety.
‘It is now essential that a joint State and Federal Government statement be issued confirming fishermen’s legal right to take fish in the Torres Strait and making it very clear that governments will not under any circumstances tolerate anyone stepping outside the law in the Torres Strait.
‘QCFO also calls on the Federal and State Governments to increase the resources available for surveillance in the Torres Strait to ensure the continued safety of commercial fishermen and other parties pursuing their livelihoods in the Torres Strait.
‘We believe this increased surveillance will be required until such time as the current heightened tension in the Torres Strait subsides.’
In his reply, Mr Williams said in part, ‘I note your concerns about the potential for violence in the Torres Strait over the issue of rights to the marine resources of the area.
‘I would like to make it clear that the Commonwealth Government totally rejects the use of force in any circumstances. Issues of trespass or assault are matters for relevant police services.
‘Commercial fishers with appropriate licences to fish in the Torres Strait have a legal right to do so and to do so without harassment from others.
‘The rights of Indigenous People to continue to have free access to, and use of, the waters and the seabed, to continue to have access to the living resources and to continue to maintain their traditional customs in relation to offshore areas are subject to the laws of Australia, including the common law.’
Mr Loveday has welcomed Mr Williams’ public statement and said the QCFO will continue to push for adequate policing and legal action to help resolve the issue.
Courtesy: The Queensland Fisherman
A joint seminar was held in Suva 6-8 October 1999 by the Japan Transport Cooperation Association (JTCA) and the Maritime Programme of the Pacific Community to look at ways of implementing the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) provisions of Chapter IV of SOLAS Convention. The seminar also explored options for the provisions of GMDSS equipment for non-SOLAS vessels.
Representatives from 12 Pacific Island Countries (PICs), Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu attended the seminar.
The seminar agreed as follows:
1. That PICs take steps to determine their sea areas for the purpose of SOLAS Chapter IV and notify the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) of their designated sea areas.
2. That PICs adopt a regional approach to implement the GMDSS provisions of Chapter IV of SOLAS ‘74 in the Pacific region.
3. That such a regional approach would be achieved by designating a few (one or two) strategically located shore stations equipped to hand to handle necessary GMDSS functions.
4. That those PICs that are not parties to SOLAS ‘74 consider accession and enact national legislation or promulgate regulations to incorporate the provisions of SOLAS Chapter IV.
5. That PICs ensure that the provisions of SOLAS regarding GMDSS are complied with on:
(a) all passenger vessels engaged on international voyages; and
(b) all cargo vessels of 300 gross tonnage and above engaged on international voyages.
6. That PICs, subject to expert evaluation, consider the types of GMDSS equipment to be carried on-board the following categories of vessels, which are not subject to SOLAS requirements:
(a) vessels engaged solely on domestic voyages;
(b) fishing vessels;
(c) small craft, including passenger boats, resort vessels and recreational craft.
7. That PICs consider the carriage of minimum GMDSS equipment on vessels engaged solely on domestic voyages, depending on the type and size of vessels and the nature of the voyage, based on the following list of GMDSS equipment shown in order of priority:
(i) a 406 MHz satellite EPIRB;
(ii) a radar responder;
(iii) VHF radiotelephone with DSC;
(iv) MF radiotelephone with DSC and the recommendations made by the expert’s mission.
8. That PICs identify those seafarers who will require (re-)training under STCW 95 and the provisions of CHAPTER IV of SOLAS, taking into account the suggestion made at the meeting, that the training of radio personnel within PICs would be most effectively pursued on a regional basis.
9. That the RMP of SPC be requested to consult with the expert in IMO Secretariat to ascertain whether such a scheme to use GMDSS simulators. which, together with an instructor, to be shared among PICs, is acceptable under STCW 1995.
10. That the RMTA be requested to provide an initial evaluation of training on a regional basis, including the identification of necessary training equipment.
11. That JTCA be requested to pursue possibilities for the provisions of an expert or team of experts to assess the above issues on behalf of PICs and specifically to:
(a) Determine what shore GMDSS facilities would be needed and where such facilities would be needed and where such facilities would be located, together with cost implications; and
(b) Identify suitable GMDSS equipment to be carried on different types and sizes of ships, together with cost implications.
12. That JTCA and RMP of SPC be requested to circulate their report on the outcome of the evaluation as soon as they are available to PICS.
13. That JTCA be requested to consider the possibility of organising, if necessary, a further meeting of representatives from PICs to agree on regional arrangements on the introduction of GMDSS in the Pacific region.
Courtesy: Maritime Newsletter
Sea levels will rise by ‘several tens of centimetres’ over the next century, according to Australian research. The finding is based on a computer model of future climate change that assumes the Earth’s surface temperatures will rise by two to three degrees over the coming century.
The Antarctic Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) says melting ice in both Antarctica and Greenland will cause some increase in sea levels, but stresses that we are unlikely to see the catastrophic melting forecast in some quarters. The centre’s director, Professor Garth Paltridge, told BBC News Online that he hoped the research would help dispel the myth that we are heading for a drowning world as a result of global warming. ‘Many of the public are still under the impression that there is a distinct possibility the ice cap on Antarctica will slide off into the sea and melt, thereby raising sea levels by quite disastrous amounts over the next few years or decades,’ he said.
‘One often hears this sort of implication when, for instance, somebody reports that a particularly large part of an ice shelf has broken off from somewhere in Antarctica. It seems well worth while to make the point that informed scientific opinion does not agree with such extreme scenarios.’
The Antarctic ice sheet is a very important focus for climate change research, not least because it helps to cool the Earth by reflecting the Sun’s energy back into space. Were it to melt completely, it would add 55 metres to global sea levels. But the Antarctic CRC says this is not going to happen with a warming of just two or three degrees. However, it is possible, it says, that the projected warming could increase the flow rate of grounded ice into the sea, adding perhaps one or two metres to sea levels over the next one or two thousand years.
The Antarctic CRC says its calculations suggest that a significant proportion of the slightly smaller Greenland ice sheet could disappear - but again over a period of millennia. Indeed, the centre believes that in the short term, there will be relatively little melting of the ice-sheets with perhaps even an increase in volume of the Antarctic sheet as a result of greater snowfall caused by higher evaporation from warmer oceans. Thus, for the next century or two, the rise worldwide rise in sea levels will come mainly from thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of non-polar glaciers.
The findings are part of Australia’s contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international body that is reviewing scientific estimates on long-term climate change. Part of the IPCC’s role is to put together best-guess scenarios for the future.
There will be some scientists who will reject this latest work because, like much of the other material assessed by the IPPC, it is based on computer models which sceptics of global warming regard as deeply flawed. The models have to incorporate a multitude of complex interactions, including cloud formation, precipitation, oceanic heat transport and sea-ice formation. Many of these measurements have to be averaged otherwise the computing task would simply be impossible. Neither do we have a full understanding of some of these climate processes.
Critics argue that the task of forecasting climate accurately even ten years ahead is beyond current technology. They also doubt the evidence that the Earth is currently experiencing a rapid warming, pointing to the inconsistencies in temperature records.
Courtesy: BBC News Online
Researchers at the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have found evidence that indicates that the rate of global warming is accelerating and that in the past 25 years it achieved the rate previously predicted for the 21st century (2°C per century).
Writing in the March 1 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, Thomas R. Karl, director of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., and his colleagues analyse recent temperature data. They focus particularly on the years 1997 and 1998, during which a string of 16 consecutive months saw record high global mean average temperatures. This, Karl notes, was unprecedented since instruments began systematically recording temperature in the 19th century. During much of 1998, records set just the previous year were broken.
Karl and colleagues conclude that there is only a small chance that the string of record high temperatures in 1997-1998 was simply an unusual event, rather than a change point, the start of a new and faster ongoing trend. Since completing the research, the data for 1999 has been compiled. The researchers found that 1999 was the fifth warmest year on record, although as a La Niña year it would normally be cooler. Outside the band 20 degrees north latitude and 20 degrees south latitude, 1999 was the second warmest year of the 20th century, just behind 1998, an El Niño year.
The researchers at NCDC analysed data from land based and satellite instruments for their study. Using sophisticated mathematical and probabilistic models in a series of experiments they concluded that the rate of warming since 1976 is clearly greater than the average rate over the late 19th and 20th centuries. To account for the string of record-setting temperatures, the average rate of global temperature increase since 1976 would have to be three degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) per century.
In its Second Assessment Report in 1995, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected the rate of warming for the 21st century to be between 1.0 and 3.5 degrees C. Karl and his colleagues have already observed over the past 25 years a rate that is between 2 and 3 degrees C per century. The IPCC study used a ‘business as usual’ scenario with regard to emissions of carbon dioxide and other atmospheric constituents.
Karl and his colleagues aren’t ready to say for certain that the rate of global warming has suddenly increased, because they know unusual events sometimes happen. Given the steady increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases and their decades-to-centuries atmospheric residence time, he urges that studies be conducted to better understand how society can minimise the risks of climate change and prepare for more, and perhaps even more rapid changes to come.
Courtesy: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MarStudies/2000/6.html