MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News Update

Headlines: 'He's behind you!'; Blind Dave's on target for London; Local companies object to loligo fee rise; Steady cruise ship rise continues; FPV Protegat on the way.

'He's behind you!'THE Sheriff (Geoff Pring) and his henchmen sneak up on our dashing hero (Zoe Luxton) in the Falkland Islands Operatic and Dramatic Association's new pantomime, Robin of Stanley, which opened in the Town Hall last night. It's not too late to catch the show - tickets are available for performances tonight and tomorrow. Doors open at 7pm for 7.30pm curtain. Page 13 - Sharon Jaffray reviews the panto. Blind Dave's on target for London"WE'VE STARTED with Brits and we're going to finish with Brits." Those were the words of blind runner Dave Heeley as he crossed the finish line on the first of his seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. He is due to complete his incredible challenge by competing in the London Marathon on Sunday. Accompanied by his guide, Malcolm Carr, and the respective winner and runner up of last month's Stanley marathon, Simon Almond and Hugh Marsden, Dave completed the 26.2 mile run at Mount Pleasant (the Antarctic leg of his seven-continent challenge) in around four hours on Sunday night. He had an unexpected delay to his arrival in the Falklands after the pilots of his aircraft from Rio de Janeiro, after stopping to refuel in Montevideo, were instructed to fly via an Argentine airport. They duly flew to Buenos Aires and then on to the Falklands. The delay meant Dave and Malcolm missed a reception at Government House at which they were to be guests of honour, how" WE'VE STARTED with Brits and we're going to finish with Brits." Those were the words of blind runner Dave Heeley as he crossed the finish line on the first of his seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. He is due to complete his incredible challenge by competing in the London Marathon on Sunday. Accompanied by his guide, Malcolm Carr, and the respective winner and runner up of last month's Stanley marathon, Simon Almond and Hugh Marsden, Dave completed the 26.2 mile run at Mount Pleasant (the Antarctic leg of his seven-continent challenge) in around four hours on Sunday night. He had an unexpected delay to his arrival in the Falklands after the pilots of his aircraft from Rio de Janeiro, after stopping to refuel in Montevideo, were instructed to fly via an Argentine airport. They duly flew to Buenos Aires and then on to the Falklands. The delay meant Dave and Malcolm missed a reception at Government House at which they were to be guests of honour, however the reception laid on for them by the military more than made up for this, from the flypast of a Tornado F-3 to mark the start, to the vocal support he received at various points around the circuit. After the run he was in good spirits for the remaining elements of his challenge: "If the rest go like this particular one has gone today, the week is going to be painful but absolutely fantastic," he said. At the time of publication, Dave was well on his way to completing his challenge - he had completed his fourth marathon in Sydney, Australia, and was heading next to Dubai. He has a marathon to complete in Tunis before his final run, the London Marathon on Sunday. More on page 3. Local companies object to loligo fee rise "THE user pays principle adopted by the government as a concept is ignored when it comes to licence fees," a fishing businessman has told the Fisheries Committee Commenting prior to the setting of the winter loligo squid ITQ fees, Drew Irvine said no other country charged such a high proportion of revenues as licence fees: "FIG takes around three times the running cost of the fishery," he said. "We are, however, expected to pay on a user pays basis when it comes to things like crew medical costs, port charges and inspection fees." He said the same fee/revenue ratio used for foreign companies was not appropriate for local companies who also pay tax. Mr Irvine said there were other issues which concerned the Falklands fishing industry including calculations using wholesale rather than ex-vessel prices for added-value activities such as reefer age, cold store, marketing and finance. "Wholesale prices are inflated by these additional added-value activities which should, and are, being caught by the tax system and should not also form part of the licence fee charge. "The fee/revenue ratio being achieved is therefore greater than that quoted in the Imperial College [policy advice] paper." He added: "We are competing in an international market where our competitors have cost advantage (e.g. lower licence fees, market on their doorstep, lower freight, etc). We cannot sell to the US for this reason, for example, but they can compete with us in our traditional market," he said. Councillor Richard Cockwell said the points made by Mr Irvine would be included with a paper to be considered by Executive Council. Steady cruise ship rise continuesCRUISE ship tourism to the Falklands continues to grow, judging by figures released by the Falkland Islands Tourist Board this week. More than 62,200 ship passengers were cleared to land in the Islands between October 2007 and April 2008, representing a 21% increase on 2006/07 season numbers. At a meeting of FITB directors held on Monday, General Manager Jake Downing said that, before the beginning of the season, the anticipated number of passengers had been higher - in excess of 80,000 - however this had been based on maximum ship passenger capacity, which is in fact rarely achieved on ships visiting the Islands. The increase in arrivals this season is part of a larger growth pattern, according to FITB, whose calculations showed that passenger numbers had grown by an average of 16% per annum for seven consecutive seasons, comparing favourably with global growth of just 8% per annum. A total of 46 different vessels visited the Islands during the season, compared to 42 in 2006/07. This included ten maiden calls. According to FITB, local increases are set to continue with cruise holidays experiencing unprecedented growth across the globe. CLIA, the official trade organisation of the cruise industry of North America, recently revealed that 43 new ships with a total of 106,000 berths would be operational before 2010. The final cruise ship of the season was Norwegian Dream, which visited Stanley on Friday, April 4. Penguin News meets her passengers on page 12. FPV Protegaton the way THE new fishery patrol vessel, Protegat, is due in the Islands within the next week. The Director of Fisheries said that once the vessel arrived, there would be "one or two hurdles to surmount" and once they were cleared the vessel would begin work.