The Otago Regional Council is set to review its navigation bylaw over the next few months.
The council has the responsibility to manage navigational safety in Otago under the Maritime Transport Act, which regulates ports, harbours, waters and maritime-related activities in the Otago region.
Staff have completed a review of the current bylaw, and have proposed some changes.
But after being asked by the council last month to look at drink-driving by those using boats on waters in Otago, staff recommended not progressing any rules around this issue.
In an agenda to a council meeting tomorrow, a staff report — authored by harbourmaster Steve Rushbrook, policy and planning manager Fleur Matthews and senior policy analyst Tanith Robb — said it might be too challenging or subjective to assess whether a person in charge of a vessel was intoxicated or incapable of having control of the vessel.
It could be potentially open to challenge without the hard backstop of a breath test, it said.
Currently, Queenstown Lakes, Auckland, and Northland Regional Councils have provisions in their navigation safety bylaws that prohibit the use of a vessel while intoxicated, or where operators are incapable of having proper control of the vehicle as a result of alcohol or other drug use.
The ORC had recorded no accidents in Otago waters as a result of the use of vessels when intoxicated. However, as alcohol or other drug consumption is not currently regulated in the bylaw, it is unclear whether it is a significant issue in Otago.
A person in charge of a vessel is responsible for the safety and wellbeing of every person on board and for the safe operation of the vessel. If unsafe operation or an accident is reported, the harbourmaster can investigate regardless of the cause.
The report advised council if it still wanted to pursue a provision related to alcohol or other drug use on vessels, a survey of recreational boat users might provide some insight into how much of an issue this was within Otago.
Other changes to the bylaw suggested by staff included a requirement for commercial vessels operating within Otago Harbour to operate an automatic identification system.
The system assists vessels safely navigating around each other and improves vessel management.
While this is a new requirement under the bylaw, most commercial vessels have it in place already, so the change would be about having it switched on in the harbour.
There will be a change to anchoring requirements; after a boat has used a 14-day allowance to anchor in one place, there will be no returning to anchor in Otago Harbour within six months.
This adjustment allows for better management of the harbour. Boats were moving anchors within the harbour to get around the 14 day rule.
An online incident report option would now be available via the harbourmaster website page.
Since the original bylaw, the council had developed the online reporting system for maritime incidents.
