BY SAMIE WAIKORI
THE Solomon Islands Maritime Administration (SIMSA) is in need of modern technological equipment.
Director of SIMSA, Mr Tim Harris says the organisation and the government need to embrace modern technology more closely, and do away with misconceptions that technical and electronic systems are unreliable.
“The real situation is that time and time again technological solutions have been found more reliable and cost effective than human systems.
“In the maritime industry incidents and accidents have been analysed and show that more than 70 [percent] have been caused by human failings and less than 30 [percent] by technical failures.”
He said SIMSA needs automatic identification systems (AIS) and long-range identification and tracking (LRIT) to monitor shipping activity in the Solomon Islands EEZ.
Mr Harris said other needed technical instruments include radar sets, gyro-compasses, echo sounders, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, electronic navigational charts (ENC) and electronic chart display (ECDIS) systems, etc.
He adds training for staff to man these equipment is also vital.
