Free to Download - SCLG

INTERNATIONAL
News
and 120-year-old giant clams.
“If the Chinese crew are under any
illusions that this is a minor incident, I’m
sure that when they get off the boat and see
what the world has to say they’ll understand
a bit more clearly just how serious this is,”
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said in a
media statement.
Full Investigation
Australian Greens party leader Bob Brown
called for a royal commission into the
grounding of the coal ship after it strayed
from a designated shipping area. There will
be a full investigation, the Prime Minister had
said following the spill. If there is a need to
also look at other measures for the future,
including a wider use of pilotage and the
wider use of the vessel tracking system that
applies in the northern parts of the Reef,
then the government will he had said.
Two tugs were in place stabilizing
the carrier, according Maritime Safety
Queensland General Manager Patrick
Quirk. The Pacifi c Responder, a salvage
and response vessel assisted with the oil
transfer. Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd announced that the government would
carefully consider changing the rules for
shipping through the Great Barrier Reef.
He had announced that the government
would consider extending a range of piloting
and ship monitoring conditions that were put
in place four years ago.
“Changes were made back in 2006, I’m
advised, by the previous government which
took the pre-existing arrangements for
pilotage and pre-existing arrangement for
vessel tracking from the northern stretch of
the Barrier Reef to include the Torres Strait.
They did not at that stage extend that to
the Southern Barrier Reef where of course
this problem occurred with the Chinese
vessel,” he said.
The captain of the Shen Neng 1 that ran
aground and leaked oil on the Great Barrier
Reef has provoked anger by claiming the
spill was not serious. Captain Wang Jichang
complained that rescuers working to stop
the stranded coal-carrier breaking up and
spewing more oil, were using up its food
and drinking water. After speaking to captain
Wang, Brisbane’s Chinese Consul-General
Ren Gongping told the media that the
leakage was not serious as the captain could
not see any oil on the water.
Long term damage
Peter Harrison, from Southern Cross
University, has been studying oil pollution
and other stress effects on corals on the
Great Barrier Reef for more than 30 years.
He said the dispersants being used to break
up the slick and the oil that’s already leaked
are a toxic combination that may cause long
term damage.
“Some of the oil products if they have
become embedded into the reef structure
could create some long term pollution and
therefore reduce the effectiveness of coral
spawning over the next year or so.”
He said tidal and wave action will spread
the oil and could drive it into the sediment
and the surrounding reef. That may reduce
the coral’s long term ability to reproduce.
Following the spillage, Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd has fl agged an overhaul of
measures to protect the Great Barrier Reef
from environmental disasters.
He was open to the idea of putting more
pilots on cargo ships travelling near the
World Heritage-listed reef. He said, he
would also look at whether there’s a case
to tighten laws to better protect an asset of
global importance.
Existing penalties allowed for fi nes of
up to $5.5 million in such circumstances,
and jail time of up to three years if a captain
was found to be negligent, he announced.
“My view is that the law must be fully and
absolutely applied in these circumstances.
Australians take the Great Barrier Reef very,
very seriously,” he said.
The Government would be “looking at
the laws for the future” as a priority, and
that he was also open to the idea of putting
more pilots on large cargo vessels plying
reef waters, the PM said. “Let’s see what the
experts have to advise”.
Maritime authorities say they’ve stemmed
the oil leak but still fear the badly-damaged
Shen Neng 1 could break up if the weather
turns bad. Equipment was being fl own to
the area so teams could begin pumping
about 950 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 100
tonnes of diesel oil off the vessel and onto
another ship.
Oil had already been transferred within
the ship from damaged tanks into secure
ones. Authorities were still considering
whether to try to offl oad 65,000 tonnes of
coal, Premier Anna Bligh said.
“If it is possible to refl oat the ship with
the coal on board, that’s how it will be
managed. But the calculations are still being
undertaken by the salvage team,” she said.
There was nothing illegal about its
intended route, although it was not
considered a preferred route. But the vessel
strayed off course and ended up grounded
in a restricted part of the marine park.
“Navigating a ship through these waters is
not rocket science,” Quirk said.
“Any competent crew should be able to
do that and we were just totally stunned to
fi nd where she had gone aground.”
The grounding happened outside the
coverage area of a vessel tracking system,
which would have alerted authorities about
the ship straying off course, Quirk added.
Asked if he’d support an expansion of
the tracking system he said: “There’ll be a
number of recommendations to Government
and we’ll be very forceful in upping our risk
management of this area.”
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown
has called for a royal commission into the
grounding, saying there’s emerging evidence
of ships laden with toxic cargos taking short
cuts through reef areas.
52 Link May 2010