MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands plans to create a consultation Maritime Committee seeking advice from the sector

MLA Ford said stakeholders might consist of...“the Falkland Islands Fisheries Committee, South American Atlantic Service Ltd,

The Falkland Islands Government Committee system will have a new addition and that is the Maritime committee, and is forecasted to function broadly along the lines of the fisheries committee has been confirmed.

 Elected lawmaker, MLA Jack Ford explained to the Penguin News that there was already a Maritime Compliance Steering Committee which is an internal group made up of people across FIG and it was those members who had discussed the terms of reference for the Maritime Committee.

MLA Ford said the latter’s stakeholders might consist of for example, “the Falkland Islands Fisheries Committee, South American Atlantic Service Ltd, someone from more tourist representatives, agents or launch operators like Sulivan Shipping, then you have the welfare side like the Mission.

Because there is a lot of different stakeholders and a lot of different areas, ”we want to make sure that it had a good covering across the sector. So a lot of that is still to be worked out but I think that the intent is very much there to include the relevant people.”

The member of the Legislative Assembly added though that at the same time “you also want good coverage but don’t want to end up with an unwieldy monster.”

Asked what its work would involve he indicated “a maritime legislative program,”... “whether it was consultation or getting the committee’s view on things like other maritime policy -things that they put in place - just to provide a more public forum where we can seek advice from the sector and the public can have a better idea of what’s going on because that doesn’t quite happen at the moment.”