Fourteenth Meeting of the Liaison Group for the Shipping Community
7 December 2023
Members of the Liaison Group for the Shipping Community of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) attended the annual meeting at the Observatory Headquarters on 1 December 2023 with a total of 22 representatives from 15 shipping companies, container terminal operators, the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, the Hong Kong Pilots Association and the Marine Department.
Dr PW Chan, Director of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), presented awards to a number of Hong Kong voluntary observing ships (HKVOS) in recognition of their outstanding efforts in taking marine meteorological observations at seas in 2022. Fourteen ships, namely, APL Singapura, Dapeng Moon, Dapeng Star, Dapeng Sun, Maersk La Paz, Min Lu, Min Rong, OOCL Indonesia, OOCL Chicago, OOCL Houston, Seaspan Beyond, Shen Hai, YM Warmth and YM Wholesome, received the “Diamond Award” for contributing 500 or more weather reports last year. OOCL Atlanta, OOCL Tokyo, OOCL Washington, OOCL Seoul, OOCL Canada, OOCL Beijing, OOCL Berlin and Maxwell received the “Gold Award” for contributing 300 to 399 weather reports. Dr Chan also presented a certificate of appreciation to OOCL New Zealand for its assistance in deploying two drifting buoys in the South China Sea in 2022 to enhance ocean observations for tropical cyclone monitoring. Moreover, certificates of appreciation were also presented to ZIM Charleston from Seaspan Ship Management Ltd and TS Shenzhen from Fleet Management Ltd for their assistance in installing and operating the ship-borne automatic weather station on board the VOS to collect marine meteorological observations including wind, air pressure and temperature, as well as relative humidity over data sparse sea areas.
The shipping community was briefed at the meeting on the latest development of the weather services provided by the HKO. The ‘Earth Weather’ webpage will be enhanced by adding sea current forecast to cover the South China Sea and the western North Pacific. The Observatory will also strive to enhance the capability of automatic collection of marine meteorological data over the South China Sea in future years.
