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U.S. WEST COAST MARITIME REVIEW Marine Educators Turn Attention To Next-Generation Personnel While the industry concentrates on creating more efficient technol- ogy and increasing profit margins — with environmental and safety concerns also creeping to the crowded forefront — recruitment of future mariners, scientists, engi- neers and executives has fallen by the wayside. This shortage of mar- itime personnel is a serious matter, since companies seem unwilling to turn leadership over to non-mar- itime management, as evidenced by the industry's failure to embrace the idea of outside man- agement audits under the International Maritime Organi- zation's (IMO's) International by Bridget A. Murphy, associate editor Safety Management (ISM) Code. Helmut Sohmen, chairman of World-Wide Shipping Agency Ltd., emphasized the need to recruit personnel in his address at Shipping '96. "What the shipping industry needs in the short term ... are good communicators with polit- ical connections ... So if we want to experience a new era in shipping, let us search for and employ these miracle men and women," urged Dr. Sohmen. Educational institutions being a reasonable place to begin the search for young leaders capable of taking on the challenges posed by the modern maritime world, Circle 201 on Reader Service Card MR/EN has ventured inside one program dedicated to introducing marine disciplines to young people and preparing university students for careers in maritime-related dis- ciplines. Los Angeles, Calif.-based Occidental College has developed a program designed to act as an operational seagoing classroom for the youth of Southern California, focused on providing students of all ages with practical working experi- ence at sea and an opportunity to investigate indigenous marine life, with an overall emphasis on envi- ronmental monitoring. Considering the location of the school and the fact that the term "occidental" traces its meaning back to a description of western culture, this account was selected as the focus for MR/ENs annual West Coast Ma ritime Review. Fishing For Interested Parties In 1969, Gilbert Van Camp of the Van Camo tuna enterprise donated his private fishing vessel, built in 1962 at Ditmar & Donaldson in Costa Mesa, Calif., to Occidental College for use as a teaching resource. With a National Science Foundation grant, the vessel was promptly converted for oceanographic use and named Van tuna in honor of its donor. As explained by Vantuna Program Coordinator Janice Grancich, the vessel is used by Occidental students, as well as is rented out, at very low cost, to other schools and institutions in the area. "It's meant first and foremost as an educational outreach for schools who don't have a boat and would like that opportunity," said the Occidental official. She said that many of the partic- ipants come from inner city Los Angeles and ha ve never been out on the ocean before. In addition to voyages conducted by the vessel owners, this year 18 voyages have been booked by four-year colleges, 71 have been booked by two-year colleges, and grammar schools and high schools combined account for 30 reservations. Government institutions and private industry also reserve voyages for explo- ration of the Southern California Bight, which evidences the high quality of resources available onboard the vessel. With a full-time captain and engineer assigned to Vantuna, a lot of attention is paid to vessel main- tenance, particularly the propul- sion system of the 34-year-old ship. The program coordinator said that while the vessel s CAT engines are old, they still wDrk very well, and pointed out thai; keeping Vantuna in good working condition is a major priority. "Every year it gets drydocked for a month. It's main- tained very well," said Ms. Grancich. Netting Next-Generation Leaders In addition to Vantuna's hectic chartering schedule, every year for the past 22 years, five weeks of the vessel's time has been devoted to Occidental's summer oceanology program, an intensive program directed at encouraging top-grade high school seniors to explore the possibility of committing to marine science studies at the university level. This year, a group of 30 has gathered from all reaches of the country, coming to the West Coast from as far away as New York and (Vantuna vessel specifics next page, main story continued on page 99) ShipCAM96 Fairing and Loftine Software for Shipbuilding • 32-bit Windows evolution of ShipCAM4 • Designed for Win 95, Win NT, and Win 3.1x 4 Developable and Compound Curvature plate ex / Frames with cutouts J New user interface uses multiples resolution display / Trim, offset, and in) J Exchange • Shell CAD-Link Ship Structural Modeler
