NMSA helps with beachfront clean-up - Papua New Guinea National Maritime Safety Authority
The National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA) has joined the efforts of the Royal Papuan Yacht Club (RPYC) with their initiative under the ‘Clean Ocean Campaign’.
The initiative is in line with the Authority’s mandated roles and responsibilities in order to prevent marine pollution, and to promote and improve cleaner and safer marine environment in PNG. The campaign is the first of its kind by RPYC which is a lead up to the World Ocean Day which falls on the 8th of June, 2022.
The clean-up took place along the beachfront at Daugo Island (aka Fisherman Island). The island community is about a 10 minutes boat ride from Ela Beach, Port Moresby. The island community came alive over the weekend when more than 50 NMSA staff volunteers apart from students from Daugo Primary, staff from National Fisheries Authority (NFA), Sea Women of Melanesia, CEPA, the Water Police, and others, took to the beach and assisted the RPYC with its coastal clean-up campaign.
NMSA’s Executive Manager for Maritime Operations, Captain Krzysztof Orlowski thanked the RPYC for this initiative, which is also assisting NMSA to carry out its mandated marine pollution prevention responsibilities.
He said: “There is a great need for stakeholders to work together to prevent marine pollution of our seas/oceans and the event today is a success, is evident of such collaboration.”
Captain Orlowski reiterated the fact that and said: “Protecting our marine environment is very important to the people in maritime provinces, as they are dependent on marine life to sustain their livelihood. There is a need for more collective efforts to be made by stakeholders in order to address this global issue which is not only affecting PNG but the world as a whole.”
General Manager/CEO for NMSA, Mr Paul Unas thanked the management of RPYC for such an initiative, and the students of Daugo Primary school for their efforts in the coastal clean-up exercise whilst appealing to the shipping industry, port operators and the general public to be conscious of the environment, in particularly our rich and diverse marine environment.
Mr Unas said: “This clean-up exercise should not only be seen as educational as we want to educate our tomorrow’s leader and to instill in their minds the importance of keeping our marine environment clean and safe, but it should also set the path to working in collaboration with other stakeholders for cleaner and safer seas/oceans.”
Authorised By:
Paul M. Unas
General Manager/CEO