MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Penguin News Update.

Headlines:
South Georgia transhipment order irritates fishing company; AWG: Memorial was not vandalised; Film to help avoid seabird mortality; Lady Slipper declared endemic; School lessons with a Chinese flavour.

School lessons with a Chinese flavour.

YEAR TWO students at the Infant and Junior School have been learning about China. Acting Governor, Miss Harriet Hall, dressed in full Chinese costume, visited Mrs Sweeting's class on Thursday. Miss Hall worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in China for a number of years and gave a talk on the country to the class. Pictured from left to right are: Bronwen Ford, Erin Hazell, Dean Dent, Zoe Taylor, Nicholas Beith, Sinead McGill, Phoebe Smith and Scott Thain wearing their hand made Chinese hats.

South Georgia transhipment order irritates fishing company.

A MEASURE introduced by the South Georgia Government for inspecting toothfish catches has annoyed a vessel owner in the Falklands. In order to monitor catches of toothfish in South Georgia waters more effectively, the Government of South Georgia now inspects the quantities of catch landed or transhipped. The Acting Commissioner for South Georgia Harriet Hall said, "Vessels can do this under supervision in Stanley or at King Edward Point in South Georgia." Dick Sawle of Polar Ltd said he agrees that all toothfish should be traceable and regulated in order to protect the valuable fishery. However he added that he could not understand why "these laudable objectives" can only be met in King Edward Point or Stanley. "My view is that this could be carried out equally well in other ports. If the cargo is to be transhipped to a reefer vessel, there is no great difficulty in sending the reefer to meet the fishing vessel whether at King Edward Point or Stanley." Mr Sawle said smaller vessels tend to prefer to tranship in their home port. "Due to the small amounts of cargo (less than 300mt per vessel in most cases), it is normally not possible to arrange for a reefer to divert. For this reason, many of these small vessels prefer to tranship their catch direct to their home port ? Punta Arenas, Cape Town or Montevideo. Clearly it is also cheaper and more efficient to do so." He said these vessels are now having to enter Stanley, take all of the catch off the vessel and then back-load it onto the same vessel. "This is inefficient, expensive and illogical, in my view. Inspections of cargo could take place perfectly adequately and under whatever conditions the Government of South Georgia might wish to impose in any other civilised port." He added, "I can see no reason why surveyors that are nominated and chosen by the government of South Georgia and paid for entirely by the vessel owners, should not be placed in other nominated ports to do the same task. "The benefit to the operator is that the catch is moved only once instead of twice, suffers less damage from manipulation, and the operational costs are significantly reduced." Antonio Cordeiro of Atlantis Ltd and Sulivan Shipping Ltd said he could understand why the South Georgia Government had set the requirement, however he believed there are "black spots" which should have been resolved first. He said, "We don't have the means to store fish ashore once discharged - we may not have enough space in containers or in cold storage." He said it was also disappointing the South Georgia Government had been unwilling to accept the option of contracting independent surveyors to do the job of monitoring catches in other ports. However he added that he was expecting two ships to arrive in the next week and he said both would comply with the rules. Drew Irvine, manager of Argos Ltd said his company had no problem with the requirement to inspect catches landed or transhipped. He commented, "...our intention was to comply with it and we made our plans for the season accordingly. "We have already done a mid season transhipment at King Edward Point ten days or so ago in line with this requirement." He added, "Our position remains as it was when we accepted the licences at the start of the season, and we therefore intend coming to Stanley at the end of the season to land the remaining catch and have this checked by the authorities." Mr Irvine said he believed the requirement will bring economic activity to the Falklands, "...something which I would have thought should be encouraged." Miss Hall said no exceptions would be made to the South Georgia Government's requirement and she declined to comment on the reactions from companies.

AWG: Memorial was not vandalised.

NO VANDALISM has been carried out on the Argentine war Memorial at Darwin, the monument's building contractor has confirmed. Following rumours of damage caused to the memorial, AWG (Falklands) Project Manager Ray Barlow visited the site to check all was as it should be and confirmed that, "...everything is as we left it." Mr Barlow explained that two plaques had sustained some damage during construction of the monument and the Argentine architect is aware of this. New plaques are in transit to replace the damaged ones. Mr Barlow said the wording on all the plaques has been, "...checked and okayed by both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Falklands Islands Government." The Madonna statue which is to be incorporated into the memorial is yet to arrive in the Falklands.

Film to help avoid seabird mortality.

A SHORT film has been produced to help fishermen avoid the incidental killing of sea birds. As a result of systematic trials conducted by Falklands Conservation, and with the support of the industry, the deployment of bird-scaring lines will be adopted by the finfish fleet when the new fishing season starts this July. In order to ensure that the bird-scaring lines are correctly made and deployed, schematic plans and fitting instructions have been circulated, the short film produced and pre-made lines have been made available at cost to the majority of the fishing vessels. The video will be shown during licence briefings when the captains collect their licences from the Fisheries Department. Continued on page 3.

Lady Slipper declared endemic.

THE number of Falklands' endemic plant species has grown with the addition of the Lady's Slipper or Calceolaria fothergillii. Falklands Conservation this week announced tests and sampling work had officially proven the plant, found on coastal slopes, to be unique to the Falkland Islands.

Categories: Falkland Islands.

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