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Australian Centre for Maritime Studies Supplementary Submission delivered to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Defence Subcommittee, on Australia’s Maritime Strategy, Wednesday, 26 February 2003
The principal submission was published in Maritime Studies, no. 126, September/October 2002.
The Centre believes that Australia’s maritime strategy must address the totality of our maritime interests, which embraces not only our offshore areas but also the wider oceanic interests. Australia is located at the confluence of three great ocean systems: the Pacific, the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, which control our climate. We use them for trade and to connect with countries bordering these regions. We see the maritime strategy as a component of economic, industrial, defence and environmental policies. This was recognised as long ago as the 17th century by the Dutch, who created a wonderful trading empire which stretched from New Amsterdam to the East Indies.
In terms of national security, the maritime element is seen as of increasing importance. This is because the defence paradigm has shifted significantly since 1989. However, in the 14-year period since 1989, we find ourselves – and this is enunciated in the latest white paper – still locked into a century-old notion of the defence of Australia based on the counter-invasion concept of operations. This paradigm shift recognises that the strategic environment is now one of considerable turbulence. To quote the Hart-Rudman Commission, which is applicable to most western nations, including Australia, ‘The great danger is no longer the threat of military invasion, but assaults on the complexity of our society.’
That is the nub of what we are trying to do. The real challenge facing Australia now is to create, in a positive way, a benign strategic environment. The Centre’s paper suggests a number of ways in which Australia’s expertise across our capacity in the maritime field can be marshalled as an element of achieving this desirable outcome. One of our recommendations, therefore, is for the government to initiate action to study and synthesise the implications of the paradigm shift on our national security outlook. The Centre’s view is that, until that is done, it is difficult to develop a new defence white paper and what flows from it in terms of capability and force structure. It is a significant shift.
Our paper goes into some detail on our dependence on shipping and the importance of shipping in sustaining our economy. In the post-1989 world, the potential threat to international shipping needs to be addressed. One of our recommendations, therefore, is to recognise the need for Australia to take a lead in developing collaborative protection measures with our major trading partners. We have already seen one tanker, the Limburg, attacked by terrorists. I put it to you that if a 400,000-tonne supertanker was attacked in the Malacca Strait it would cause a huge economic impact on our major trading nations, South Korea, Japan and China. This is the sort of thought process which really needs to be addressed, because we are so dependent on international trade for our economy. Not only are we a trading nation ourselves, but we are dependent on countries like South Korea and Japan, vital economies, buying our raw materials and products. I believe that shipping is taking on an international dimension which we need to address.
The Centre has also looked at the decline in Australian shipping – and the negative impact that this has on our balance of payments – and on our lack of strategic sea lift in terms of military capability. We recommend, as a priority government initiative, the establishment of a task force of stakeholders to determine how Australia can get back into the shipping business. We note also that a strategic study of road and rail transport has recently been initiated by the government, but shipping has basically been ignored. We ignore shipping – Australian flag shipping or Australian-owned shipping – at our peril.
We also go into some detail as to how Australia can connect with the Indian and Pacific Ocean nations across the whole range of maritime affairs. To give effect to the many opportunities for regional engagement, we recommend that the government establish a review or task force to study how second-level diplomacy across the maritime spectrum can be advanced and projected into our region. It is a wonderful vehicle for engaging with nations in our region and it is a non-threatening and very creative field. A number of things, from fisheries to offshore protection, in which we have expertise, have been outlined in the Centre’s main submission. One of the advantages is that a lot of these take place offshore in international waters.
In the area of defence, as I say, this Centre is not a think tank as such, but we have stressed a number of longstanding and abiding principles of national sea power which have stood the test of time – and which were very well enunciated by Dr John Reeve – and are relevant to Australia’s strategic circumstances. They are the need for deterrence, which can and should be sea-based, the capacity for naval forces to manoeuvre, the ability of forces to operate and concentrate in international waters, so that there are no diplomatic difficulties involved, and the use of naval and maritime forces as a vehicle for regional engagement.
In the area of shipbuilding, the Centre notes that significant achievements have been realised in both the naval and civilian fields. However, we would recommend the establishment of a task force to determine opportunities for selling Australian products to the wider region, particularly in the field of naval and offshore engineering capabilities. We do not press the fact that Australia is in a unique position because it is a sophisticated regional power, but it is not an ex-colonial power, a superpower or a nuclear power, and I believe that gives us entrée to a lot of these countries that makes our bona fides much more genuine.
Comparing scientific data collected from the same southern ocean sites, but 10 years apart, will allow scientists to discover how the climate of the ocean is changing and measure how much carbon dioxide the ocean is absorbing. Australian researchers will be on board the Japanese research vessel Mirai when she visits sites surveyed during the World Ocean Circulation Experiment 10 years ago. According to Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) marine scientist, Dr Ian Poiner, the seven-month circumnavigation of the Southern Ocean will significantly boost southern hemisphere ocean observations, which will in turn improve the understanding of future climate change. ‘Whether it is future climate or simply understanding the factors driving our marine environment, expeditions such as this are critical if we are to make progress and better manage global ecosystems,’ he commented.
The Mirai, the world’s most sophisticated ocean exploration vessel, departed from Brisbane in August.
‘Intergovernmental partnerships are essential,’ says Poiner, who represents Australia on the international Census of Marine Life project. ‘Global ecosystems systems remain poorly understood; new ocean observation initiatives are very welcome developments.’ Mirai chief scientist, Dr Masao Fukasawa, says the expedition will have three key research elements:
• understanding the oceanic structure over the whole water column, particularly the circulation system in the Southern Ocean and changes in the system as a result of global warming;
• the interchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the ocean, and the way the ocean responds to this cycling; and
• understanding environmental changes, including the process by which the ocean harnesses light, oxygen, and carbon dioxide to generate the ocean food chain.
Scientists will measure water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients, and carbon dioxide from the surface to the sea floor at more than 500 locations in the Southern Ocean. The ship will also deploy more than 70 Argo profiling floats. Each float will cycle between depths of two kilometres and the ocean surface every 10 days, transmitting data to satellite over their three- to five-year lifetimes. There are already 838 Argo floats in the world’s oceans. Researchers from CSIRO and the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in Hobart (ACE) will join the Mirai in a voyage crossing the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans before arriving in Fremantle in January 2004.
For further information go to www.marine.csiro.au/.
Courtesy CSIRO Marine
Mr Efthimios Mitropoulos of Greece has been elected as the new Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, to succeed the incumbent Mr William O’Neil of Canada when he steps down from the post at the end of this year. Mr Mitropoulos was elected to the post by IMO’s 40-member Council. Other candidates were Mr Magnus Johannesson of Iceland and Mrs Monica Mbanefo of Nigeria.
Speaking after his election, Mr Mitropoulos said, ‘I am delighted with today’s decision of the Council to appoint me as IMO’s new Secretary-General to succeed Mr O’Neil as from next year. I look forward to the Assembly approving the decision of the Council.
‘However, as delighted as I am today, I will be even more so if, at the end of my four-year term, I am judged to have been successful in the discharge of my responsibilities and that I have lived up to the expectations of the IMO Members.
‘Although I interpret the Council’s vote as a vote of confidence in the particular individual, I cannot see the honour that goes with the vote as not reflecting on my family, my family’s home town and my country, all three with deep maritime roots, of which I am very proud.
‘I am fully aware of the heavy responsibilities the Council has put on my shoulders. As I stated when I presented my candidacy, I intend to carry out my duties with honesty and dignity in full consultation with the IMO Members acting, at all times, in the best interests of the Organization in pursuance of the ideals and objectives of the United Nations.
‘I have extended a hand of friendship and co-operation to my fellow candidates and appealed to the countries which voted for them to give me their support and co-operation so that the membership, as one solid entity, moves forward to face the many and various challenges that lie ahead.
‘I wish to thank the Greek Government for putting forward my candidature and, in particular, Prime Minister Simitis, Foreign Affairs Minister Papandreou and Mercantile Marine Minister Anomeritis for the support they gave me throughout my campaign. I am very pleased with the decent and transparent manner in which the campaign was carried out.
‘My deep and sincere thanks are extended to the Governments which supported my election, my many friends who wished me good luck and my staff in the Maritime Safety Division who supported me since I took over eleven years ago and whose solid work and co-operation provided me with a strong platform from which to launch my campaign. The trust Mr O’Neil put in me has always been a source of strength and appreciation for my part. I owe a lot to our close working relationship.’
Mr Mitropoulos, aged 64, has been involved with the maritime industry since 1957. Following his career at sea in the Greek Merchant Navy, he gained experience as a maritime economist, lecturer and author, harbour master and marine technologist. From 1965 to 1979 he was a member of the Greek delegation to IMO, rising to head of delegation. He joined the IMO secretariat in 1979 and in 1985 was appointed head of the Navigation Section. In 1989 he became Senior Deputy Director for Navigation and Related Matters and in 1992 was appointed Director of the Maritime Safety Division. In 2000 he was designated Assistant Secretary-General.
Courtesy IMO Newsroom
Developing countries will shape nearly all growth in the fish industry in the next two decades, while greater reliance on fish farming could force a trade-off between the health of wild fisheries and the environment, and the well-being of the poor. These findings come from Outlook for Fish to 2020: Meeting Global Demand, a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the WorldFish Center. The study forecasts trends in supply and demand for fish and seafood products over the next twenty years and their impact on fisheries.
This groundbreaking report is the first to examine pressing problems of fisheries in terms of rapidly changing global and national market forces. Using state-of-the-art computer modelling, the researchers project that, in 20 years, developing countries will be responsible for 77 per cent of global fish consumption and 79 per cent of world production.
‘The trends are clear: in 2020, people in developing countries will produce, consume, and trade a greater share of the world’s fish. Policymakers in rich and poor countries alike must consider this when developing fisheries policies for the coming decades,’ said Chris Delgado, lead author of the report. Delgado is also director of the Joint International Livestock Research Institute-IFPRI Program for Livestock Market Opportunities.
The report projects that fish consumption in developing countries will increase by 57 per cent, from 62.7 million metric tons in 1997 to 98.6 million in 2020. By comparison, fish consumption in developed countries will increase by only about 4 per cent, from 28.1 million metric tons in 1997 to 29.2 million in 2020. Rapid population growth, increasing affluence, and urbanization in developing countries are leading to major changes in supply and demand for animal protein, from both livestock and fish.
To meet this growing demand, fish farming, or aquaculture, an already booming industry, will continue to expand, since most of the world’s existing wild fisheries are tapped to capacity or beyond. In fact, the study projects that more than 40 per cent of fish eaten by consumers in 2020 will come from fish farms. Aquaculture production is expected to nearly double in the next two decades, climbing from 28.6 million metric tons in 1997 to 53.6 in 2020.
However, expanding aquaculture could also increase pollution and the use of scarce water and land resources, threatening the environment and the poor in developing countries, according to the report.
‘Small and large-scale fish farmers need technical and policy assistance to produce top products in an environmentally friendly way,’ stated Meryl Williams, director general of the WorldFish Center. ‘But governments can avoid a trade-off if they develop aquaculture policies that are environmentally sustainable and foster technologies that poor fish farmers can afford. For example, policymakers could support providing small-scale fish farmers with technical assistance so they can comply with food safety and ecological regulations.’
Substantial increases in fish farming could actually damage already vulnerable wild fisheries, and growth plans for this sector must also consider these potential effects.
‘The fate of aquaculture and the world’s wild fisheries are linked through markets and even more directly,’ noted Joachim von Braun, director general of IFPRI. ‘On the one hand, fish farming often uses wild fish products such as fishmeal and small fish as feed, and this is already stressing wild fisheries. Often, fish farming and wild fisheries compete for the use of coastal space. On the other hand, increased fish farm production reduces pressure on fish prices and may decrease pressure on wild stocks.’
‘With appropriate actions taken and investments made now, we can ensure that we will be able to meet growing global demand for fish over the next two decades,’ commented Delgado. ‘If policymakers focus on improving stewardship of marine and coastal resources, and developing technologies to reduce waste and environmental damage in wild fisheries, we will not only meet demand, but we will do so in a way that is fair to the poor and environmentally sustainable.’
More information can be found at the IFPRI website at: www.ifpri.org/media/fish20031002.htm.
The British Ministry of Defence plans to flout international shipping regulations on the phasing out of single hull tankers by operating its ageing flotilla of naval support oil transporters into the next decade.
The government has decided that the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s nine veteran single-hull oil transporters will see worldwide service until as late as 2010 while defence mandarins push through a review of the Royal Navy’s future supply needs.
Three of the smaller 30-year-old oilers with International Maritime Organisation category two status are due for scrapping next year under single-hull phasing-out arrangements.
Another six tankers rated IMO category one oil tankers would be phased out by 2005 under the accelerated proposals or 2007 under the present agreement.
The Ministry’s move effectively rips up a long-established voluntary protocol that British naval and auxiliary vessels comply with international agreements on preventing ship pollution.
Civil servants and Rolls-Royce executive Anne Holden in the early evaluation phase of the MARS, or Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability, defence review are as yet without a plan for tanker replacement orders by 2010.
Warships and naval auxiliary vessels are outside the control of the Marpol 73/78 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, but article 3 of the treaty calls on governments to operate these vessels ‘in a manner consistent, so far as is reasonable and practicable, with the present convention’.
‘All we can do is encourage governments to follow international regulation adopted by the commercial industry,’ said International Maritime Organisation spokeswoman Natasha Brown.
UK Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram confirmed in a written answer to the House of Commons in March that keeping the RFA tankers in service for another seven years would not comply with Marpol conventions.
The following month he reiterated that ‘it continues to be Ministry policy that, where practicable, we comply with shipping acts and associated regulations.’
The RFA said the government had played a key role in implementing IMO regulations and retained a ‘great concern’ for crew safety and the marine environment.
‘Plans are in hand to progressively replace the single-hull tankers with double-hull vessels,’ said RAF spokesman Paul Parrack.
‘The MARS program will see the introduction of further double hull vessels to replace current ships.’
Three of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary single skin oilers, the Rover class, set to continue worldwide duties this decade, were built in the early 1970s by Tyneside builder Swan Hunter and four Leaf class single-hull tankers were built in the early 1980s.
Courtesy The Navy
The Australian seafood industry will soon commence a $2.3 million nationwide fisheries environment management program, following the announcement of significant Federal Government funding.
Federal Ministers David Kemp and Judith Troeth have announced the Federal Government will invest more than $655,000 from the National Heritage Trust in a program to implement environmental management systems (EMS) in the seafood industry.
The seafood industry has committed a further $1.7 million towards the program.
Australian Seafood Industry Council (ASIC) Chair Terry Moran said the EMS program would provide practical help for individual fishermen and aquaculture operators wanting to demonstrate they are meeting expectations for a ‘clean, green’ seafood industry.
‘Australia’s $2.5-billion seafood industry has an international reputation as a leader in sustainable and responsible seafood production,’ Mr Moran said. ‘That reputation is set to be reinforced by this major industry and government initiative.
‘At home, there is a valid community expectation that all fisheries will operate sustainably into the future. This program will assist the industry to demonstrate that this is occurring.’
Specific objectives of the program included:
• support and evaluate the implementation of EMS by more than 60 individual fishing and aquaculture enterprises;
• support up to 250 more seafood enterprises to commence developing an EMS;
• assess the value of EMS as a management tool for seafood businesses to achieve their environmental, economic and social goals;
• assess the effectiveness of EMS in achieving broader natural resources management goals associated with fishing and aquaculture;
• identify and document the critical success factors for the adoption of EMS by seafood businesses and organisations; and
• generate information and knowledge to guide the development of policy, program and regulatory frameworks relating to EMS in the seafood industry, sustainable development of the industry generally, and development of integrated certification systems.
‘The program will be administered by Seafood Services Australia (SSA), a partnership between the Australian Seafood Industry Council and the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation (FRDC) established to be a catalyst for the sustainable development of the seafood industry,’ Mr Moran said.
FRDC Executive Director Peter Dundas-Smith said the Corporation had invested in SSA to foster links across government and industry sectors and to overcome impediments resulting from market or institutional failure.
‘The achievement of this EMS National Pilot Program investment is an excellent example of the value of collaboration.’
Mr Moran said the Federal Government investment of over $655,000 was part of its $8.5 million EMS pilot project for primary industries, funded by the National Heritage Trust.
‘The seafood industry’s ability to demonstrate good environmental performance, to Australian and international seafood consumers and to the community at large, is fundamental to its future success and security,’ he said.
‘ASIC initiated the development of a national seafood industry EMS framework in 1999. This framework is reflected in the Seafood EMS Chooser developed by SSA, Ocean Watch and industry with funding support from the FRDC.
‘This new EMS project, to run until mid-2006, will provide a huge boost to the roll-out of EMS in the seafood industry and build on some of the excellent work being done by industry groups around Australia.’
Courtesy The Queensland Fisherman
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