Maritime NZ has announced recipients of the annual Fuel Excise Duty (FED) funding for safer boating initiatives to help reduce fatalities and injuries.

In total, 25 projects and initiatives around the country will share $863,000 worth of funding.

Too many people die each year while participating in recreational boating, says Maritime NZ Director Kirstie Hewlett.

Maritime NZ research shows that 98 people died in various incidents between 2015 and 2020.

Ms Hewlett says the fund will help various national and regional campaigns and initiatives to turn that number around.

“We want to ensure all boaties enjoy the water and come home safe,” she says.

“We want to help boaties know, understand and follow the rules each and every time they head out on the water.”

Initiatives which have received funding include Coastguard’s Old4New lifejacket upgrade programme and the Bar Safety Video Series, which received $125,000; Northland Regional Council’s Nobody’s Stronger Than Tangaroa campaign, which received $70,000; and $60,000 for Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s Kia Maruatau ki te wai and Safety is Our Wai scheme.

Many of this year’s grants focus on communities most in need of support, says Ms Hewlett.

“The funding is specifically targeted at on-water compliance activities for people and areas that don’t currently have it, such as ethnic minority groups, low socio-economic and hard-to-reach areas,” she says.

These include Northland, Bay of Plenty and the West Coast.

Pasifika, Asian and Māori communities are the targets of a number of programmes.

These include Coastguard’s Folau Malu campaign, Drowning Prevention Auckland’s Wai Wise initiative and the NZ Underwater Association’s Dive Pacific Māori programme.

A key purpose of the fund is to support campaigns and collaboration of New Zealand’s Safer Boating Forum, a group of organisations dedicated to improving safety in the recreational boating sector.

Forum members include Coastguard, Jet Boating NZ, NZ Search and Rescue Council, Surf Lifesaving NZ, and a number of regional councils.

Ms Hewlett says that collaboration and the allocation of FED funding is essential to saving lives.

“More than two million New Zealanders take part in recreational boating every year and this funding allocation will hopefully ensure their lives are safer as a result,” she says.

Note to editors

All of Maritime New Zealand’s recreational boating work is funded through fuel excise duty on petrol (about $5.4 million). This is from contributions to the tax take boaties make when refuelling their boats. That is redirected to support recreational boating safety.

Source: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU2208/S00061/maritime-nz-announces-safer-boating-funding.htm

• No fixed alternative routes between Taiwan and the Philippines and Japan

• Taiwan transport authorities say Taipei air control units are coordinating with Philippine and Japan counterparts based on the airspace situation

• On the last day of its live-fire drills around Taiwan, China said it will begin on August 8 a month-long series of live-fire drills in Bohai Sea and similar drills for a week from Sunday to August 15 south of the Yellow Sea

Taiwan has not established fixed alternative routes with the Philippines and Japan for cargo flights to and from those two countries amid China’s live-fire drills that virtually blockaded the island, transport authorities of Taiwan told PortCalls.

Month-long live-fire drills in the Bohai Sea and south of the Yellow Sea will be held by the People’s Liberation Army, China announced on August 7, as it prepared to end massive live-fire exercises around Taiwan that halted commercial ships calls to ports the island.

The Taiwan authorities were replying to queries from PortCalls last Thursday about reports coming from Taipei that it is coordinating with the Philippines and Japan the setting up of alternative routes for cargo flights due to China’s live-fire drills around Taiwan.

Air traffic control units are coordinating with Philippine and Japan air traffic controllers based on the situation in Taiwan’s airspace, one source said.

Airlines have cancelled flights to Taipei and rerouted others to avoid nearby airspace that has been closed to civilian traffic during the Chinese military exercises.

The Maritime Safety Administration of China said military operations will be held in part of the Bohai Sea from Monday until September 8, and in parts of southern Yellow Sea from Sunday to August 15, South China Morning Post reported. SCMP said the waters will be off limits to shipping during the drills.

The live-fire drills at the newly identified zones would affect airline operations and commercial shipping to Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong and the ports on their coasts.

The PLA mounted  unprecedented war games near Taiwan in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island.

The military exercises have led some ships to sail around the Taiwan Strait and give the island a wide berth, disrupting key trading routes for cargo and commodities on Saturday, analysts said. Potential delays for shipments of electronic goods are expected, they said.

The newly announced live-fire drills on Bohai Sea and south of the Yellow Sea are expected to cause potential substantial disruption to trade in the region.

VesselsValue’s data shows that there are 256 containerships, tankers, and bulkers in Taiwanese territorial waters, with a further 60 estimated to arrive before the conclusion of the drills on Sunday.

Of the containerships, tankers and bulkers that have a predicted destination of Taiwan the current count is 308, of which 60 are estimated to arrive between Thursday and Sunday when the military drills will be performed.

Although Taiwan’s ports are operating normally, some cargo ships and oil tankers are circumnavigating the island to avoid confrontation with the Chinese military, adding around half a day to voyages, analysts and shipowners said.

It reminds everyone of the severe impact a conflict over Taiwan could have on global trade given the 180-km wide Taiwan Strait and a shipping lane to the island’s east are major routes for ships transporting goods from East Asia to the United States and Europe.

“Some ships have already taken precautions and are proceeding east of the island instead of through the Taiwan Strait,” said Niels Rasmussen, chief analyst at shipowner association BIMCO, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Source: https://www.portcalls.com/no-fixed-routes-for-ph-japan-cargo-flights-taipei/