Safety awareness in ops

By MALINDA KALE
WATER police has used Christmas and New Year operations to do more awareness on maritime safety, Water police director Chief Supt Trevor Lapu says.
Supt Lapu said the main purpose of the operation was safety at sea as many people were still not aware of the Small Craft Act and the necessary safety requirements needed while travelling at sea.
He said the act would be in effect this year and it was important that people were informed and practised safety at sea.
He said by law the Small Craft Act had been in place and everyone needed to follow it.
In the act there is everything a seafarer needs to know while travelling at sea to ensure that the safety of everyone on board is protected.
Lapu said in many cases out at sea, people travelled without life jackets, no extra fuel and drinking water, and most times they overloaded.
“The main purpose of this operation is safety at sea, that was our objective for our Christmas operation,” he said.
“During the operation we stop them and tell them that this by law was illegal and informed craft owners to call into the directorate where we issued safety manuals and pamphlets after interviewing and talking to them.”
The water police started its Christmas operation with the NCD command, and on Dec 21, they pulled out and started their own operation out at sea which would end on Sunday.
Lapu said the reason for conducting operations at sea was to create a conducive maritime environment for all seafarers, the maritime communities, the Motuan villages plus business houses.
He said no major incident was reported and the ones reported involved overloading and drunk skippers.