MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Penguin News Update.

Headlines:
A short, snowy shock; Chief Executive responds to Forbes' agents; Illex 2005 forecast is discouraging; GCSE results arrive;Wedding holiday approved.

A short, snowy shock.

AFTER a mild few months, winter finally arrived in the Falklands this week with blizzard conditions; however Meteorological Office forecasters say the cold snap should begin to ease today. Snow began to fall over the Islands on Monday evening with the first significant accumulations of the 2004 winter on Tuesday morning. However Matt Jolley, forecaster at Mount Pleasant (MPA), says the bad spell seems to be coming to an end today, "...as a ridge of high pressure builds from the west, giving a few days of relatively quiet weather." He said although several inches of snow had fallen at MPA due to the strong winds causing drifting, "...taking an accurate measurement is impractical as the depth varied from a couple of inches to several feet over the span of a few yards." The minimum temperature on Wednesday night was 1.5C at MPA which, with the gale force winds, gave a chill factor of around minus 30C. The wintery conditions have affected air transport within the Islands. The Government Air Service cancelled flights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, however a spokesperson was hopeful flying would resume today. Asked whether the Falklands is in for a snowy September, Mr Jolly said, "...that's a little far off I'm afraid, but in the next five days it looks a lot quieter and a little milder too." Photo: Enjoying the cold snap: Simon Ladron de Guevara and Dima Sytchov with a wintery creation.

Chief Executive responds to Forbes' agents

THE government's (FIG) Chief Executive has described a letter from the arbitration agents for Gordon Forbes Construction (Falklands) Ltd which was published in Penguin News last week as a "sign of desperation". Chris Simpkins said the letter from Abbey Arbitrations appeared to be intending to, "...create divisions amongst councillors and to drive a wedge between councillors and FIG's professional advisers by questioning the wisdom of their advice to FIG as to the conduct of proceedings." He says references in the letter to large sums of money, "...are clearly intended to paint a picture of how much Gordon Forbes Construction has gained at FIG's expense, the cost implications for FIG and future financial risk to FIG by appealing the Arbitrator's Final Award and the Judgement given by Acting Judge, Nick Sanders, in July 2003." He says that underlying the whole letter is, "...the suggestion that FIG's statement is not in the public interest and the right course is to pay to Gordon Forbes Construction money that is rightfully theirs." In his lengthy statement, Mr Simpkins outlines the government's moral and financial reasoning for pursuing the appeal. Full coverage of the statement is on page 5.

Illex 2005 forecast is discouraging

THE poor results of this year's illex squid season could extend to the 2005 season, a Fisheries Department Scientist believes. Dr Sasha Arkhipkin has concurred with a report submitted by the National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development (INIDEP) to the Argentine Federal Fisheries Council (CFP) which contains the final assessment of this year's squid fisheries development and states that there is a high probability that squid recruitment could be, "...nil or very low," in 2005. Dr Arkhipkin commented, "...there is quite high probability that illex recruitment in the next season will be low. " He added, "Of course, it is impossible to predict this at the moment, as we don't have any information from the illex spawning grounds located on the continental slope of the southern Brazil." Dr Arkhipkin said that, given the high fertility of illex females (each female carries, on average, about 200,000 eggs) and quite favourable environmental conditions at the moment (cold and windy weather is good for this species), "...I cannot exclude the possibility that squid will come back, but of course not at those quantities which we observed in 1999-2001." The INIDEP assessment was performed between January and June this year in Falkland Islands waters and Argentina's EEZ, where scientists observed that, "...the 2004 season's recruitment was almost nil." Since estimates forecast a similar situation for 2005 the report defines strategies for resource conservation. Dr Arkhipkin commented, "All precautionary measures proposed by INIDEP are reasonable, and they will be discussed also at the next South Atlantic Fisheries Council Meeting in Mar del Plata at the end of this year." Loligo catches More positively, Marine Officer, Jon Clark says catches of loligo squid so far this month have been "quite good" with an average of 19 tonnes per ship per day. He said the poor weather conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday meant many of the ships took shelter and did not fish. Mr Clark said the total catch for August, up to the 25th, is approximately 7,000 metric tonnes, "...about 60% of the average for 2000-2003." PN/MP

Education news

GCSE results arrive

LAST week A level students began to receive their results and this week it is the turn of GCSE students. The results began arriving in the Islands yesterday and the Director of Education said they contained "few surprises". Eighteen students in all took GCSE exams and Mrs Sylvia Cole said, "Although they were a small cohort, there was a real mixture of able and less able students." She commented, "...as a result of the grades, we have been able to confirm places for some of the students who wanted to go on and study in the UK, although a couple will be disappointed with their performance." She added that three students who re-sat exams have achieved grades which will now allow them to attend Chichester College, "...which is really good news. - they've worked hard." Highest GCSE performer was Krysteen Ormond who, in her nine subjects, achieved one A* (Spanish), one A (English), four Bs, two Cs and a D. Speaking from the United Kingdom yesterday, Krysteen expressed both surprise and pleasure at her results. She is off to Peter Symonds College in Winchester where she will study Spanish, Linguistics and Film Studies. She said her career plans involve, "...something to do with languages; perhaps an interpreter or something similarly well paid." The Director of Education said the students had not suffered with the change to the layout of the school year. She commented, "They started their GCSE course work early, in the last term of Year Nine so they had the full six terms like any others." Mrs Cole added, "There is no indication from these grades that that situation has created any problems."

Wedding holiday approved

SCHOOLCHILDREN around the Falklands are to have the day off school to celebrate the Governor's wedding on October 21. The Director of Education said she received a response on Monday from Acting Governor Harriet Hall who was happy to approve the holiday in His Excellency's absence from the Islands. (FIBS)