00048.GEN - Aug 23, 2000

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has recently published two Safety Bulletins dealing with collisions between ships and fishing vessels. With the ATSB's kind permission I am copying them and distributing them to the owners of all self-propelled Vanuatu vessels.

The lessons learned in Australia are, in fact, universal lessons: failure to maintain a proper lookout or an over reliance on radar detection was the cause of the majority of the incidents.

Vanuatu is not immune to such incidents: in past years Vanuatu has experienced collisions between Vanuatu ships and fishing vessels flying other flags. The causes: failure to keep a proper lookout and an over reliance on radar. One of the incidents resulted in the loss of the fishing vessel although no lives were lost in any case. The ships were relatively unscathed.

Please freely distribute these bulletins to your vessels. And let this office know of any incidents, including near misses, that your vessels may have been involved in.

Donald J. Sheetz
Executive Vice President