There were 2,224 registered ships in Fiji last year.
This was revealed by the CEO of Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji John Tunidau at the Pacific Maritime Technical Officers Workshop on Shipping Emissions.
Tunidau says there are 1,024 Passenger and Passenger/Cargo ships, 507 fishing vessels, 42 barges, 15 dredges, 4 cargos and 18 police boats.
One of the aims of the workshop was to reduce greenhouse gas emission on Fiji’s domestic fleet.
Tunidau says the government’s commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gas by focusing on strategies such as improving the operational efficiency of ships, re-introducing age limit on second-hand ships and supporting technical advancement by designing efficient hull and propellor for ships.
He says some short-term measures taken are ships in Fiji using lighter diesel fuels rather than heavier fuels, cleaner hulls which raises fuel efficiency and lowers fuel consumption and moving away from the use of two-stroke engines for outboard motors to four-stroke which is more efficient.
