Eight mussel barges issued notices

Maritime New Zealand and Maritime Police recently carried out health and safety inspections on 15 of the 18 mussel barges operating in the Coromandel and Firth of Thames. Supplied Photo.

Maritime New Zealand teamed up with Maritime Police to conduct health and safety inspections on 15 mussel barges in the Coromandel and Firth of Thames recently.

The patrol boarded 15 of the 18 barges operating in the area over three days as crews worked, with eight vessels issued Improvement Notices under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

These notices were for a range of issues including inadequate machine guarding, lack of facilities for crew, and failure to maintain an accident/incident register.

Four vessels also had Conditions imposed under the Maritime Transport Act 1994 for issues such as uncertified deck cranes and hydraulic oil leaks from deck machinery.

Maritime NZ Central Regional Compliance manager Pelin Davison says being able to inspect these vessels while at sea enabled Maritime Officers to check actual working conditions for crews.

'We were also able to remind skippers and crews about what is expected under HSWA – including the tougher penalties and new health and safety responsibilities for workers, as well as officers and Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking.

'Education is a large part of the work we do – along with compliance action where needed. Crews seemed happy to have the opportunity to discuss working conditions and how they can be improved.”

The patrol was conducted with the assistance of the New Zealand Police Maritime Unit from Auckland, on-board the Deodar III, with local harbourmasters also taking part.

Recreational boaties were also spoken to – with checks done for the number of lifejackets on board, along with communication devices such as VHF radio, flares, rescue beacons and cellphones in waterproof bags.

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3 comments

Tauranga boats

Posted on 21-04-2017 08:41 | By Hot stuff

I think they need to come and inspect some of the shocking looking charter boats tied up to the whafes in Tauranga , a couple of them look like they should be condemed and shouldn't have a paying passenger in them . I can't believe the council allows them to tie up in there beautiful little city area


Maritime police ?

Posted on 21-04-2017 08:45 | By Darth Vader NZ

it appears this country is slowly becoming a police state when police are required to assist in inspecting mussel barges so infringement notices can be issued ... so the police will now be used to assist in inspections of factories and everything else to do with health and safety in this country


Empire builders

Posted on 23-04-2017 07:55 | By Papamoaner

I reckon OSH were created to save money on ACC, not to "look after the people" Then it became an empire. They produce statistics to show that we still have accidents. That justifies their existence! But they conveniently avoid statistics that show they have not reduced accidents historically since their inception. Enforcement instead of education creates huge empires that are expensive to run and only serve to cover arses and protect unnecessary jobs. Their credibility went down the gurgler when they behaved like Nazis and ruined the lives of a farmer who let beekeepers onto their property, and a dodgy Army bridge collapsed. They prosecuted the farmer instead of the Army. OSH are essentially a BLAME industry. Disgusting.


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