Chinese Coal Ship - Update

In a previous post, I talked about the Chinese coal ship that ran aground in the Great Barrier Reef a little over a week ago. The ship was taking a shortcut and was about 9 miles off course. This past week, "Svitzer Salvage Australasia pumped off much of the 975 tonnes of fuel oil," according to an article from Environment News Science.

Monday evening, the coal ship was pulled out of the reef by three tugboats and relocated closer to Great Keppel island for inspection. While talking about the punishment for the people responsible, Rachel Nolan, Queensland state Transport Minister, was quoted saying "Make no mistake, this company will pay a very substantial price for this incident. Their ship was off course in very environmentally sensitive areas and they will pay the price." (Reuters Article)


Photo Credit: TreeHugger.com

Russell Reichelt, chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said that the ship made a "gash" in the reef and the toxic paint on the hull of the ship was also damaging the coral. According to David Wachenfeld, the almost two-mile gash made by the Shen Neng 1 "is, by far the largest ship grounding scar we have seen on the Great Barrier Reef to date." (Yahoo! News)


Photo Credit: BBC News

An investigation is underway about ships taking shortcuts through the reef, and the Queensland Government "has already moved to introduce stronger penalties for polluting ships." (Reuters Article)