The Maritime and Safety Authority, with stakeholders and NGOs, are conducting boat master training all around Fiji to avoid incidents in the shipping sector.

According to MSAF Manager Ships Inspection Captain Sesoni Komaisoso, more than 6,000 people have graduated from their program within the last three years.

Captain Komaisoso stresses that most incidents at sea happen because boat captains are not trained and boats are not certified.

“But we are reaching out to the communities, our islands, the maritime islands to ensure that they are all trained because if they don’t get trained, they don’t know, they don’t, you know, take safety seriously.”

Komaisoso says that MSAF will continue to visit our maritime islands, surveying their vessels and ensuring that all equipment that is required is on board.

The World Maritime Day celebration today also marks the graduation of about fifty boatmasters from the province of Ra after completing their training.