FINN(COM) Daily Record: 16 July 2004

FINN(COM) DAILY RECORD: FRIDAY, 16 JULY 2004

 

 

 

 

Port Facility Security Plan (PFSP) for St Helena and Ascension approved.

 

St Helena has notified the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that it is ready to sign up to the Safety of Lives at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, an international treaty designed to protect all ships.  Before signing, certain security measures had to be put in place and, in particular, St Helena and Ascension Island needed to be compliant with the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code.  This Code was set up to help protect vessels entering and leaving ports with regards to terrorist threats, particularly after the events of September 11^th 2001.  Under the ISPS Code, ports are required to produce a Port Facility Security Plan (PFSP) and this has now been done for St Helena and Ascension. 

 

On the 29^th June 2004, Governor Hollamby and the Ascension Island Administrator, Andrew Kettlewell, were notified by the Transport Security Directorate (TRANSEC) that the PFSP for Georgetown and Jamestown had been approved.  TRANSEC will now sign the necessary paperwork on behalf of St Helena and Ascension, which will demonstrate that both Islands are in compliance with the ISPS Code. 

 

Earlier this year Barry Williams, Port Manager/Harbor Master, Clarence Roberts, Police Training Officer, and Keith Brinsden, Senior Customs Officer, attended ISPS training sessions on Ascension Island.  The team has since been preparing an action plan and working towards making St Helena compliant with the ISPS Code.

 

In a letter addressed to Governor Hollamby, Peter Eggleton (Senior Maritime Security Adviser – TRANSEC) thanked the teams for their work and commitment and added that they have met an important milestone but continued effort will be required to ensure effective compliance with the UK’s maritime security requirements.  Mr Eggleton will be visiting both Islands in November this year to see how the security arrangements are working out.

 

Now that both Islands are in compliance with the ISPS Code, we can expect to see tighter security at our Ports, a good sign that as our Islands develop they do so with a safety focus.

 

Public Relations/Information Office

Office of the Chief Secretary

 

FIBS NEWS DIRECT: 16 JULY 2004

 

ARGENTINE VISIT:

 

As we reported on yesterday’s News Direct, a group of Argentine families are to travel to the Falklands next month for an opening ceremony at the Darwin Memorial.  Up to 12 Argentine relatives of the 1982 war dead are to arrive on a private plane on August 6^th, leaving again the same day.  The party won’t include any Argentine politicians or officials.  Jan Cheek (JC) is this month’s spokeswoman for the Council.  She told me this:

 

JC:  Councillors have agreed, on humanitarian grounds, to this very small visit by private aircraft for a group to mark the completion of the memorial.

 

SG:  What was actually asked for?  Have you agreed to exactly what was asked for or has there been some sort of negotiation?

 

JC:  As you will be aware, some months ago there was talk of a huge inauguration.  I am sure that the Argentines still want to do an inauguration at some point but there’s the difficult issue of Charter Flights to be overcome before that can happen.  So, this is just a very small group of representatives of the families.

 

SG:  What do you know about who will be coming and how they will be selected?

 

JC:  We don’t have the list yet.  We have made it very clear that we expect the maximum number of relatives they can fit in this very small aircraft.  We will see the list and we will have an opportunity to say if anyone on that list is unacceptable.  We believe that they’ve asked a member of the British Falkland Families Association to join them if possible but I have no more detail at the moment.

 

SG:  To give us a bit more background, why have Councillors agreed to this?

 

JC:  As I said at the beginning, purely on humanitarian grounds.  This Memorial has been a long time coming for those poor families who lost people.  And, we felt this visit would be a good gesture on our part.

 

STEADY START TO LOLLIGO SEASON:

 

Illex was one of the main topics at the recent meeting of the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission in London.  Director of fisheries, John Barton was there along with Stock Assessment Scientist, David Middleton.  Lee Hazell (LH) asked John Barton (JB) to tell her more about the discussions and Illex.

 

JB:  Both sides were obviously concerned about the very poor 2004 season.  There was general agreement that recruitment had been the lowest on record and also the stock abundance was the lowest on record.  Everyone was agreed that it was major grounds for concern.  And, we also needed to do something about that for the future.  The statement indicates that both sides had agreed a very precautionary approach towards Illex for the future.  Also, it’s been agreed that there would be some extra work done because we have actually had a very good conservation agreement on Illex.  In many respects, it has been very sensible, in that both sides have taken a view that if the stock of Illex is going to fall below 40,000 tonnes of spawning stock biomass, then there is a mechanism for exchanging information between here and Argentina.  That process has been used several times resulting in the Illex fisheries closing in Argentina and in the Falklands in a co-ordinated manner.  That’s been a perfectly good arrangement, which has been working to a degree.  It was also felt that in very extreme years, such as 2004, where the stock is clearly very low, something else is happening to do with oceanography or other factors, that there might have to be a slightly different procedure, which can work if we do experience another bad year like that.

 

E-MAIL SCAMS:

 

E-mail scams are doing the rounds again.  Sgt Dave Roberts (DR) from the Police Station came in to give us a round-up of the ones that are currently in the network.

 

DR:  There’s a couple going around.  One came to our attention yesterday when a person asked for a note of the lowest denomination of currency.  They ask for notes.  The lowest denomination at the moment is a £5.00 note.  They are not offering to refund or do anything so we are not sure what they are looking for.  If you receive these e-mails, don’t be tempted to send them a fiver.  We are receiving e-mails, letters and faxes from the “Euro” foundation in the Netherlands, stating that you have won an excess of 1.5Million Euros.  They ask you to contact your claims advisor.  They are not asking for money this time but if you do respond, you will receive another e-mail asking for bank accounts.  The other one is identity theft as well.  They set up accounts in your name and you will never get credit anywhere else in the world.  We also get e-mails with the header saying “Confirmation of your order.”  People like Amazon, Ebay and have confirmations.  It will say Ebay.com or Amazon.com or Dot Co Dot UK.  If you don’t recognise the final bit on the e-mail, don’t respond to it.  Some have links to hard core porn sites.  Some of them are just confirming e-mail addresses, then you get bombarded with spam and junk e-mails.  The advice I am giving to people as well is if you get freeware that’s going around, where you can get free spam deletion.  The one I am using at home is one called Mail-washer, which seems to be working fairly well.

 

FISHING AND HARBOUR NEWS:

 

Lolligo catches on the first day of fishing were reasonably good. According to Fishery Operations, with the average catch being around 20 tonnes for the 16 vessels fishing.  These vessels are currently concentrated around the same area to the west of Beauchene Island.  The Jacquelyn FI has been alongside FIPASS today having her haul of Toothfish verified.  There’s one more vessel due in tomorrow for the same purpose and another will be in Berkley Sound transhipping.  There have been 2 reefers in Berkley Sound today, along with the Tanker, Zalgares.

 

COMMITTEE MEETING:

 

The Fisheries Committee met at 0900 on Friday, but the public section of the meeting had a very slim agenda, with the only item for discussion being the report of the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission.

 

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