This is a fitting symbol to reflect Maritime New Zealand’s role – to make life at sea safer; to protect the maritime environment from pollution, safeguarding it for future generations; to ensure New Zealand ports and ships are secure; and to provide a search and rescue service that people can call upon to assist them in one of the largest search and rescue areas in the world.

What we do

Maritime New Zealand is responsible for:

developing and monitoring maritime safety rules and marine protection rules
licensing seafarers and registering ships
conducting safety inspections of all New Zealand ships and foreign-flagged ships calling at New Zealand ports
investigating and analysing maritime accidents and accident trends
educating the maritime community about best practice in safety and environmental standards
ensuring that relevant port facilities and New Zealand ships meet the requirements of the Maritime Security Act 2004
providing and operating lighthouses and other aids to navigation for ships on the New Zealand coast
providing a coastal maritime safety and distress radio service
managing the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand
maintaining the New Zealand Marine Oil Spill Response Strategy and National Contingency Plan
administering the New Zealand Oil Pollution Fund
overseeing services provided by organisations under contract, mainly in the areas of marine radio services and the Safe Ship Management system.

Maritime New Zealand profile

Download [PDF: 791Kb, 12 pages]

Organisation governance and structure

Maritime New Zealand is a Crown entity established in 1993 under the name Maritime Safety Authority. It was renamed Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) in July 2005.

Maritime New Zealand is governed by an independent Board appointed by the Governor General on the recommendation of the Minister of Transport. The five-member Authority directs the overall Maritime New Zealand strategy, and appoints the Director of Maritime New Zealand. The Director manages the organisation and has independent statutory powers under the Maritime Transport Act 1994.

Maritime New Zealand Director and Authority member profiles
Minister of Transport – Hon Steven Joyce [New Zealand Government]
Maritime Transport Act 1994 [New Zealand Parliamentary Counsel Office]

The Maritime New Zealand Executive team:

Director of Maritime New Zealand – Catherine Taylor

General Manager Maritime Services – Sharyn Forsyth
Licensing, Ship Registration, Safety Management Systems, Regional Operations,
Recreational Boating, Health and Safety, Rules Exemptions, Nautical Advice, Technical Advice

General Manager Monitoring and Response – Bruce Anderson
Maritime Investigations, Safety and Environmental Audit,
Maritime Security and Incident Response, Marine Pollution Response Service

General Manager Strategy and Communications – Lindsay Sturt
Safety Research and Analysis, Environmental Research and Analysis, International Relations, Education and Communications

General Manager Safety Services (RCCNZ) – Nigel Clifford
Rescue Coordination Centre of New Zealand, Aids to Navigation, Distress Radio

General Manager Corporate Services – Trevor Coad
Finance, Planning and Risk Assurance, Information Services, Business Management Services

General Manager Human Resources – Anne Greenwood

Chief Legal Counsel – Stephanie Winson

Maritime New Zealand organisational chart [PDF: 15Kb, 1 page]

Our structure and offices

Maritime New Zealand has approximately 140 staff working throughout New Zealand – most are based in Wellington.

Maritime New Zealand offices:

national office, Wellington
10 regional offices at all of the major ports around New Zealand (Whangarei, Auckland, Tauranga, New Plymouth, Napier, Nelson, Picton, Lyttelton, Dunedin and Bluff)
Marine Pollution Response Service Centre, Auckland
Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand, Lower Hutt.

Contact Maritime New Zealand

Our accountability documents

As a Crown entity, Maritime New Zealand has a responsibility to report to parliament and the public on our performance.

The statement of intent outlines our policy direction, while our annual report shows what we have achieved.

Statement of intent 2009–2012 [PDF: 1.69 Mb, 76 pages]
Annual Report 2007–2008 [PDF: 1,61Mb, 88 pages]

Use of the MNZ Logo

The Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) logo can only be used by:

MNZ Authority and staff members on all official correspondence, presentations and publications.
Suppliers to MNZ working on official business, eg. printers, signwriters, publishers and advertisers.

Maritime organisations and businesses may not use the MNZ logo.
The only exceptions are organisations and businesses working in partnership with MNZ who have been granted prior permission to show the MNZ logo in specific ways, including web content, and where no commercial endorsement is made.

The MNZ logo is made up of two elements: the symbol and the names. These elements must never be separated or redrawn, nor their relative proportions altered.
The MNZ Manager Education and Communications is responsible for managing the use of the MNZ logo.

The MNZ communications team holds electronic images of the logo for use in publications. All requests for supply of the MNZ logo must be forwarded to publications@maritimenz.govt.nz.