Australian government has infused $4 million funding for a new vessel to replace the old one in order to secure Western Australia’s offshore fisheries compliance activities. Announcing the proposal Fisheries Minister Norman Moore said that the purpose-built vessel will replace the Department of Fisheries patrol vessel (PV) Walcott by 2013. He added that the department currently runs two 20 metre-plus patrol boats capable of operating for extended periods in remote locations and in the heavy weather conditions that buffet WA’s coast.
He informed that the new vessel will help improve the State’s capacity to service the demands of fisheries compliance activities along WA’s 21,000km of coast. He also said that the replacement of the vessel will provide a whole of government platform to assist in emergencies at sea, whale entanglements, oil pollution incidents and future services for the Northern Gas Project and Commonwealth Marine Park surveys and compliance.
Moore opined that the long-range patrol vessels currently in service are expected to deliver more than 280 at-sea days in 2009-10, on top of providing other services along WA’s coast. He told by the time the new vessel is built and brought into service in 2013, the PV Walcott will have been in use for almost 15 years.
