Bid to cut Reef risk boosted

QUEENSLAND’S Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace has thrown her support behind a new electronic headcount system proposed for Great Barrier Reef tour operators.

It comes as a new snorkelling and diving code of practice comes into play following a review last year of the state’s dive industry’s workplace health and safety arrangements.

The new code requires defibrillators to be on Reef tourist vessels and for operators to identify at-risk snorkellers before they enter the water by giving them flotation devices and a swimming buddy.

But the Association for Marine Park Tourism Operators (AMPTO) wants to go one step further by introducing a new electronic passenger management system.

The TOMS (Tourism On- board Management System), which is to be trialled in Cairns, will allow dive boat crew to identify passengers by their handprints as they board and disembark a vessel.

Plus by incorporating wristbands worn by passengers, tour operators will also be able to track swimmers, snorkellers and divers in the water, at all times, within 1m accuracy using an onboard computer.

AMPTO is seeking state funding for the implementation of the innovative safety system.

The minister, who was in Cairns yesterday, said she would be happy to support an innovation grant submission by AMPTO for the TOMS system, particularly if the initiative enhanced safety on tourist-operating vessels.