THE INTERNAITONAL Maritime Organization at a recent maritime event in Queensland called for more Pacific Islands nations to ratify the SAR Convention.
The ninth Pacific Search and Rescue workshop and third Pacific Women in Maritime Association conference were both held in Cairns from 27 February until 3 March.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority hosted the PACSAR and PacWIMA events with support from the IMO, the Pacific Community (SPC) and the SPC’s Pacific Women Lead program.
Eighty-five delegates from Australia and Pacific nations attended the events.
The theme of the regional search and rescue workshop was to “reconnect search and rescue in the Pacific region”.
It focused on developing SAR capabilities using new technology to boost SAR response, co-ordination and prevention.
Bekir Sitki Ustaoglu, head of the Asia and Pacific Section at the IMO, called for more to be done in the region to ratify the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR Convention).
“There are still a considerable number of Pacific States that have not yet ratified the SAR Convention,” Dr Ustaoglu said.
“We can see the progress, although there is still considerable room for improvement.”
Pacific SAR authorities were invited to reaffirm their commitment to the Pacific SAR Technical Arrangement for Cooperation, which provides a framework for consultation and co-operation on lifesaving in the Pacific Ocean.
Countries were also encouraged to become signatories to the arrangement.
And at the PacWIMA conference, IMO principal program assistant for Women in Maritime Mariana Noceti spoke about the role of communities in the context of SAR.
Ms Noceti highlighted the advantages of having women in maritime and the IMO’s work over three decades to increase women’s representation across the workforce.
“We have committed to this important cause – and we are seeing these efforts bear fruit”, she said
The IMO said the conference acknowledge progress in implementing the 2020-2024 Regional Strategy for Pacific Women in Maritime since its endorsement at the Second Regional Conference for Pacific Women in Maritime, held in Papua New Guinea in 2018.
Also, it said PacWIMA members at the Cairns conference agreed to seek the endorsement from the region’s Energy and Transport Ministers for the development of a new strategy for 2025-2030.
They also agreed to promote the Adopt a Ship program, which aims to promote the maritime industry to school students.
The program also raises awareness of safety at sea and the protection of the marine environment.
