The Cook Islands celebrated World Maritime Day on  Friday 29th September at Avatiu Harbour and the IMO theme for this year was ‘Connecting Ships, Ports and People’.
The theme highlights the vital inter-connectivity between the three principal components – ships, ports and people – in contributing to the maritime economy. The Cook Islands World Maritime Day kicked off with a welcome address by the Cook Islands Prime Minister Honorable Henry Puna, and up to 600 students from various schools around Rarotonga took part. Aimed to heighten the youngsters’ understanding of the industry, a total of eight stations were set up. 
  • Xcil Shipping educated students about containers and how they are transported in and out of the coutry.
  • Cook Islands Towage Ltd organised a tour onboard RoRo barge, Layar Mas 291. 
  • Cook Islands Police conducted a tour on Police Patrol vessel, Te Kukupa.  
  • Local telecommunications company Bluesky taught students about VHF Radios and radio frequencies. 
  • Ministy of Transport and Cook Islands Tourism Coproration collaborated to  demonstrate rope tying.
  • Ministry of Marine Resouces introduced students  to fish aggregating devices and displayed fish species charts.  
  • Marae Moana the Cook Islands Marine Park shared the importance of preserving the marine environment and had a crown of thorns starfish on display. 
  • The Cook Islands Water Safety & Surf Lifesaving Council in collaboration with Sailing Cook Islands focused on water safety through a search and rescue demonstration in the Avatiu Harbour.
The Cook Islands Ministry of Education organised an iPad challenge where students had 10 different clues and had to take photos of different objects around the harbour. Students will be working on an iMovie or powerpoint presentation and the winning school will win a prize.   
MCI Chief Executive Officer, Glenn Armstrong said today: “This year’s celebration is a build-up and extension of last year’s – still involving the youth – as we aim to cultivate the understanding of the maritime industry in the younger generation. It was wonderful to see so many people from the maritime industry participating in this year’s World Maritime Day making it such a success.”