On Monday afternoon the plenary session divided into the four discussion groups. The groups were instructed to run quickly through the list of discussion points to judge the magnitude of the task and to begin discussing some of the key issues.
The groups discussed the various topics and made brief progress reports to the plenary session on Tuesday. Following discussion of these reports in plenary, the Chairman instructed each group to identify about ten important conclusions, principles or "burning issues" for presentation to, and discussion at, the plenary session on Wednesday. The resulting plenary discussions were quite lively and from this emerged several issues that cut across many of the discussion groups.
The topic of mandatory requirements for vessel registration, vessel inspection and crew certification received considerable attention. On the one hand, some participants felt that while implementing such mandatory requirements presented considerable challenges, they represented a useful model for countries to strive towards. In this respect it was felt that it would be somewhat negligent if the group did not make such a statement on the issue. On the other hand, some individuals believed that mandatory requirements would be impractical in many locations, could affect the credibility of the outputs of the Consultation and that the target problems could be better addressed through other means. The consultation participants arrived at a compromise in which the group's conclusion was that there should be an investigation of the feasibility and desirability of mandatory sea safety requirements.
It was acknowledged that enforcement of regulations in remote locations is extremely difficult and there is a large range of enforcement conditions across the countries of the Pacific Islands. There was general agreement in the consultation that "top down" solutions are rarely effective in the outer islands and that village-level institutions could offer an alternative to enforcement by urban-based agencies. It was also noted that full use should be made of the experiences gained from successes in outer islands enforcement of mandatory requirements in other sectors.
The importance of good sea accident data arose in the discussions of all four of the Consultation themes. The benefits from the availability of this data included: determining the real problems for which regulations should be formulated, the generation of political will, gauging effectiveness of accident reduction programmes, and identifying areas of concern in vessel construction.
Training required for improving safety in small fishing boats was discussed in each of the four groups. Some common areas of training needs that came out in the plenary discussions included "light" or informal training considerably below the standard of some of the more formal courses now available, portable courses that could be taken to remote locations and an increased focus on training for community members.
Many of the discussions of the four sets of conclusions included reference to automobile analogies: programmes to reduce road fatalities, use of seat belts, good data to target problems areas, increased use of regulations, and the use of visible reminders of accidents. The consultation believed that much is to be learned from successful road accident campaigns, but one participant cautioned that the education level for those targeted in sea safety campaigns is considerably lower than those individuals who drive cars.
As a result of the plenary debate and discussion, modifications were made to the conclusions of the four discussion groups to reflect the sentiments of the full group. The important conclusions for each group, as modified by the plenary discussions, are given in Appendix D.
