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8. Sea safety in Fiji


8.1 General

Fiji is an archipelagic nation comprising about 322 islands with a total land area of 18 272 km2 and a surrounding EEZ of about 1.3 million km2. The group includes two large high islands, several medium-sized high islands, and numerous small islands and atolls. Most of the islands are surrounded by fringing and barrier coral reefs. Much of Fiji's coastal waters occur off the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu and the islands of the Mamanuca and Yasawa groups. Fiji's capital and main urban area is the city of Suva on the southeast of Viti Levu.

According to Fisheries Department (2002), in 2001 there were 830 vessels participating in the artisanal fisheries: 30 unpowered, 348 outboard powered, 380 inboard powered, and 72 skiffs. These vessels had a total of 2 443 crew. According to a recent study by the Forum Fisheries Agency, in December 2002 the locally-based offshore tuna fleet consisted of 96 longliners and one pole/line vessel, employing a total of 893 crew.

Important features of Fiji relevant to sea safety include:

According to the Fiji Navy, small boat activities account for about 95 percent of the sea safety incident reports and characteristically involve mechanical problems; difficulties associated with poor weather, or capsize. On the other hand, the problems of the larger fishing vessels (mainly tuna longliners) usually involve grounding, sinking, or engine problems. The more spectacular disasters (e.g. sinking of the F/V Wasawasa in 1997 with the loss of ten lives) are often the catalyst for greater government intervention in sea safety.

8.2 Fisheries management and sea safety

The broad objectives of management interventions in the fisheries sector are suggested in the mission statement of the Fisheries Department: "to provide sustainable management and development of the nation's fishery with the aim to create employment, increase foreign exchange earnings, and improve the standards of the rural people through capture fisheries development and a well-coordinated support service programme".

To achieve the objectives, the government has a variety of management strategies. These include the promotion of fisheries activities which both divert effort away from over-exploited inshore areas and which have favourable business opportunities (tuna fishing, aquaculture), devolution of management responsibilities to coastal communities, a nation-wide system of licensing commercial fishers to fish inshore areas where permitted by local authorities, and control of aspects of coastal commercial and the offshore tuna fisheries by conventional centrally-administered regulations.

In the coastal commercial fisheries, the main management interventions are:

These management measures for the coastal commercial fisheries are not likely to have much effect on the sea safety situation. Possible exceptions to this are:

One of the requirements for obtaining an "outside demarked areas" fishing licence is a vessel inspection which, according to the responsible individual at the Fisheries Department, includes a vessel check to ensure seaworthiness.

For the offshore tuna fisheries, a new tuna management regime commenced in 2002 with the adoption by Cabinet of the Fiji Tuna Development and Management Plan. The "national objectives" of the Plan are to:

Major features of the Plan are:

Safety does not feature prominently in the Fiji Tuna Development and Management Plan. The only provision regarding this subject in the text is "The Ministry will create a Fisheries Training School to provide training to the fishing industry. At the Fisheries Training School, the Ministry will create a three to four weeks induction course for people wishing to enter the tuna fishery as a crewman, so they can gain the basic skills needed for this work, plus gain the required sea safety certificate". In the Plan's development options section, the awareness programmes seem to be limited to "reduce the risks to communities associated with the problems of alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS and STIs". The Plan's section on small-scale tuna fisheries training does not specifically mention safety training.

For tuna fishery management in general, there are safety-oriented management interventions by the Fisheries Department. The major measure is the requirement that for a vessel to obtain a tuna fishing licence from the Fisheries Department, they must have a safety certificate from the Fiji Islands Marine Safety Administration (FIMSA). This certificate covers the hull, engine, and safety equipment.

From the above, it can be seen that the concept of including safety in fisheries management is not prominent in Fiji. Although there does not appear to be major objections to doing so, the advantages of specifying safety as one of the management objectives are not widely appreciated. One possible difficulty is that the legal authority for fisheries management in the country, the Fisheries Act, is oriented to "regulating matters relating to the conservation, protection and maintenance of a stock of fish".

8.3 Safety programmes

Several government agencies in Fiji have sea safety programmes, including the Fisheries Department, the Fiji Islands Marine Safety Administration (FIMSA), and the Fiji Navy.

The Fisheries Department's recent involvement in sea safety has consisted of:

According to staff of FIMSA, the sea safety involvement of the agency consists of:

The Fiji Navy's involvement in sea safety is related to both search and rescue and safety awareness:

Not much information is available on the effectiveness of the above sea safety initiatives. Several individuals interviewed during the survey in Fiji have indicated that there seems to be a greater awareness of safety issues and a noticeable increase in the number of small vessels carrying at least some safety gear (including mobile telephones). It is not clear what was responsible, but the general feeling was that the awareness programmes were having an effect.

The inclusion of fishing vessels in safety provisions of the Marine Act and subsequent strict enforcement of those and other safety regulations applicable to fishing vessels has occurred. Although the impact on safety is uncertain, the fishing fleet operators are quick to point out irregularities in the system of checking fishing boats prior to departure from port.

The SPC sea safety materials, except for the videos, are not widely known in the Suva-based fisheries industry, the Navy, and FIMSA. When the videos can be shown in remote villages, they are well-received. It appears that potential channels of distribution to remote villages (Navy and FIMSA) for the printed materials are not being utilized.

Possible improvements to sea safety projects include:

Chapman (2002) made recommendations about sea safety initiatives for tuna vessels in Fiji. He stated:

8.4 Data recording

Staff of FIMSA indicates that they are commencing a project to record sea safety incidents, but the system is not yet operational. Some information on maritime accidents can be found in FIMSA's annual report, but this is largely oriented to the results of the work of marine investigators for large ships.

The Navy's Maritime Surveillance Centre receives sea accident reports from all government agencies. It produces various summaries of incidents which are defined as reports reaching MSC causing SAR action: patrol boat search, aircraft search, or coordination of efforts. Summary data for the past 13 years is tabled below:

Year

Incidents

Lives lost

Cost
(Fijian $)[13]

1990

45

7

22 549

1991

51

1

39 200

1992

43

14

112 201

1993

52

10

42 042

1994

74

5

28 956

1995

54

23

39 027

1996

41

7

38 267

1997

65

17

27 141

1998

67

21

36 580

1999

51

9

20 385

2000

67

21

118 947

2001

62

8

35 400

2002

51

13

130 000

For each year, more detailed data with respect to type of incident is available. Information for the year 2002 is shown below.

Month

Overdue

Distress

Drowning

Medevac

Grounding

Capsize

Engine breakdown

EPIRB

Total

Jan.

2






1


3

Feb.

3








3

Mar.

4








4

Apr.

5





1



6

May

3

1



1

1



6

June


1




1



1

July

1

1


1

4



1

8

Aug.

5

1



1




7

Sept.

2




1




4

Oct.

1



1


1



3

Nov.

2

1

1





2

6

Dec.









0

Total

28

5

1

2

7

4

1

3

51

It was not possible to obtain additional data on each incident during the short period of the Fiji survey, but as the information exists at the Maritime Surveillance Centre, it could conceivably be extracted and summarized. Discussions with the Fiji Navy's Maritime Commander indicate:

The Fiji Times occasionally contains summaries on "boating accidents". For example, on 23 June 1995 a summary of the 15 accidents to have occurred January to June of that year was given in a feature article on sea disasters.

Although the Navy appears to be doing an important job in collecting and summarizing the SAR statistics, it is unclear if the other agencies involved (FIMSA, Fisheries Department) are analysing and/or utilizing the data produced by the Navy. Discussions with a limited number of staff in those agencies did not reveal that much use was made of the Navy data. More time is needed to explore this subject in order to make substantive conclusions on sea safety accident data in Fiji.

8.5 Legislation

Sea safety is not covered in the Fisheries Act or subsidiary legislation. This situation is likely to have arisen because of the limited scope of the legal framework in the fisheries sector; the laws/regulations are oriented to "regulating matters relating to the conservation, protection and maintenance of a stock of fish".

In proposed legislation (Fisheries Management Bill 2002) there is some provision for sea safety. It is stated: "The operator of each licensed vessel shall be subject to and ensure compliance with the following licence terms and conditions....... [including] compliance with all laws of Fiji, in particular laws relating to navigational standards and the safety of vessels at sea."

Most of the legislation dealing with sea safety in Fiji is found in the Marine Act 1986, the Marine Regulations 1990, and the Marine (STCW) Regulations 2001.

The Marine Act 1986 has a sea safety section (Part IV) but fishing vessels and vessel less than ten metres were specifically excluded. In 1999 an amendment to the act was made eliminating the exclusion for fishing vessels. Important provisions of the Act for sea safety include:

The Marine Regulations 1990 have several sections applicable to fisheries-related sea safety:

The applicability of the Marine (STCW) Regulations 2001 includes Fiji vessels ("a vessel which is registered or licensed in Fiji"), seafarers employed on Fiji vessels, and owners and masters of Fiji vessels. Its main relevancy to sea safety issues in Fiji concerns the manning requirements. The regulations specify the fishing certificates required by vessel size and by distance offshore of operation (unlimited, near-coastal, territorial, and inshore). The requirements for the various fishing certificates are also stipulated with respect to minimum age, prerequisite certificate, required sea service, course of study, other certificates required, and examination.

The authority to inspect fishing vessels is given by the Marine Act to the Director of Marine, which is presently the senior officer in the Fiji Islands Maritime Safety Administration.

With respect to enforcement of sea safety legislation, there are several important issues:

The Navy quickly points out that the effectiveness of sea safety legislation could be improved if they are allowed to enforce at sea rather than just "watch vessels sink". The Marine Act gives enforcement authority to "shipping inspectors" but the Navy has not been delegated this authority. From the FIMSA perspective, giving the Navy enforcement powers is in appropriate as it would involve the military in domestic law enforcement.

As most of the serious sea accidents in Fiji are associated with small fishing vessels, it is important to reform the unrealistic sea safety requirements for these craft.

8.6 Boatbuilding and vessel design

FAO's major contribution to fishing vessel design in Fiji was the 8.6 metres inboard diesel (FIJ-5). Originally designed for Samoa, it was modified for use in Fiji in the mid-1980s and about 250 have been built at the Fisheries Division boatyard in Lami in conjunction with a fisheries development programme. That initiative was reviewed by FAO in May of 1991. The building of the FIJ-5 ceased in June of 1993 which, according to Fisheries Division (1994), was due to "the donor country Japan had ceased the supply of marine diesel engines".

FAO also designed the 6.4 metres inboard diesel vessel. Only three have been built at the Fisheries Division boatyard.

The above 6.4 metres vessel was designed for use with a 7.5 metres "emergency and auxiliary sail". In the late 1980s FAO donated a sail/motor canoe to a community for sail demonstration purposes. In the early 1990s FAO supplied a skiff emergency sail rig to the Navy so that it could be demonstrated to remote villages during patrols. With the exception of traditional sailing craft in an isolated part of the country (southern Lau) and yachts, there is little, if any, use of sail by fishing operations in Fiji.

There are a few naval architects in Fiji. In the past they have produced designs for tuna vessels (pole/line, longline) which have been built in one large and a few small boatyards around Suva. For small fishing vessels, there are three fibreglass and two aluminium boatbuilders located in the Suva area. A few small yards around the country produce wooden flat-bottom skiffs.

The vast majority of new boats in the country are outboards-powered fibreglass skiffs of about seven metres in length. According to the Navy, these vessels are responsible for most of the SAR incidents. Because it is likely that their use in Fiji will continue to expand, sea safety in Fiji will be closely associated with these vessels in the future. In this regard, two important issues are:

Recently FIMSA has brought together the fibreglass/aluminium boatbuilders of Fiji in an attempt to obtain their input prior to establishing mandatory skiff construction standards. It appears that these discussions could benefit considerably from global experience in attempts to improve skiff safety through construction standards. An FAO contribution in this area could have considerable impact in many of the Pacific Island countries outside Fiji, as these skiffs are quite numerous in many parts of the region.

8.7 Observations

The major issues in improving sea safety in Fiji appear to be:

Some sea safety lessons-learned in Fiji:


[12] According to the Acting Director of Fisheries, this has been recently addressed.
[13] In early 2003 one US dollar was about two Fijian dollars. The SAR cost is calculated on the basis that (a) a search by the patrol boat at 15 knots would use 346 litres per hour, (b) fuel costs F$.79 per litre, (c) food rations and a 30 percent charge to cover miscellaneous expenses is added to the fuel costs to determine the total cost of each operation.

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