NZMPA News:
Pacific Islands Maritime Pilots Conference and Workshop
Location: Tokatoka Resort, Nadi, Fiji
Date: February 26th – 28th
The Pacific Islands Maritime Pilots conference/workshop will be the first of its kind and will be held in Nadi, Fiji between February 26-28. The event will run concurrently with the South West Pacific Hydrographic Commission Conference in Nadi.
Delegates will come from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Kirabati, Tuvalu, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia and Fiji itself.
Organiser Steve Banks, of the NZMPA, says that unlike usual pilots’ conferences, this one is being facilitated by four Kiwi pilots and one Australian pilot. “This will be for pilots, facilitated by pilots, rather than academics, industry experts and representatives of influential organisations.
“It comes off the back of repeated suggestions that NZMPA and AMPI [the Australian Marine Pilots’ Institute] should increase engagement with Pacific Island pilots and offer support for them and their organisations.
“This event for Pacific Island nations is a NZMPA initiative and will utilise our learnings over the last several years. We will share what we have learned from a series of ship groundings between 2016 and 2018.”
Findings from investigations into those groundings led to a greater focus on coordination on the bridge between the pilot and bridge team. That in turn resulted in the topic ‘Navigation in Pilotage Waters’ being removed from the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission’s Watch List (the list of issues of special concern).
Discussions will be held on bridge resource management, the pitfalls of working at night, training, the development of the NZMPA Good Practice Guide for Pilots, the best use of hydrographic data, aids to navigation, differences between pilotage for cargo and cruise vessels, developments in pilot launches, personal protective equipment, the use of Portable Pilot Unit computers, and ensuring there is shared mental model of the ship’s pilotage plan between the pilot and the bridge team.
Please contact stevebanks@nzmpa.org or lewhenderson@nzmpa.org for details on speakers and the workshop agenda.
