On Thursday 15th August, the Rotary Club of South Queensferry was treated to a most interesting job talk by Rotarian Alan Brown. It was the second instalment, as Alan had already talked about his seafaring days on cargo ships and passenger liners a few months ago. In 1980 he decided to seek employment nearer home and joined the fishery Protection Service as a second officer. Run by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Scotland, the service is responsible for policing fisheries in Scottish waters, ensuring that foreign and local vessels obey the rules and that all regulations such as quotas and net mesh sizes are adhered to. One of the first ships Alan sailed on, Westra, was sold and now features as the environmental protection ship Steve Irwin in 'Whale Wars' on Discovery Channel. Promoted first officer then commanding officer, Alan was appointed Marine Superintendent of SFPA (Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency) in 1997. In this role Alan was project manager overseeing fleet renewal. The first two ships were built by Ferguson's of Port Glasgow, the third by a yard in Gdansk, Poland. The video of Hirta being side launched in Gdansk was particularly dramatic. Alan took early retirement in 2006. Both of his talks were very well received and prompted many questions from the floor.
more Past President Ian Fowler talked about the Youth Safety Initiative he led while working as a Chief Inspector at Drylaw Police Station. The photo shows the Risk Street, a scenario from the Risk Factory in Edinburgh
more Business Meeting 3 October 2013
more Details of Meeting on October 10
more Details of Meeting held on 24 October 2013
more Geoffrey Stell - Defending the Forth
more Jim Leishman MBE
more Lesley Fowler, Junior Chamber International (Scotland)
more September Page
more Speaker Ms Amy Telford from CHAS
more Details of Meeting held on 05 September 2013
more Business Meeting
more Speaker: Dr. Stuart Strachan - Emergency Pre-hospital Care
more Community Award - Lynne Dickson
more Jim Boyd - Tibet
more DG Kate Keter
more David Batty - What next?
more Details of meeting on 27 June 2013
more A weekly report on club meetings
back 2 October 2014