{"id":520879,"date":"2010-04-08T08:23:11","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T12:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3268"},"modified":"2010-04-08T08:23:11","modified_gmt":"2010-04-08T12:23:11","slug":"great-barrier-reef-traffic-faces-scrutiny-following-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/520879","title":{"rendered":"Great Barrier reef traffic faces scrutiny following crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Greenwire<\/a>: When a massive Chinese coal carrier ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef<\/a> on Saturday after traveling miles outside its designated shipping lane, it raised questions about what sort of guidances these ships are required to have.<\/p>\n

The Australian government does not require trained marine pilots to assist ships in avoiding hazards such as the reef, but most large ships are banned from the area, officials say. Yet more than 600 accidents occurred in the area around the reef between 1987 and 1995, including “groundings, collisions, sinkings and minor oil-spill pollution events,” according to a study by the Queensland marine park authority. Groundings accounted for almost half of all shipping accidents — 45 percent — and there were 230 reported oil spills.<\/p>\n

The Queensland maritime authority says the pilot of the Shen Neng 1<\/em> may have tried Saturday to shorten transit time and ignored the fact that he was outside the shipping lanes. The incident is under investigation.<\/p>\n

Since the ship crashed, it has leaked a 2-mile oil slick, 100 yards wide. “Fortunately, there have been no reports of continuing oil loss, and the quantity spilled to date does not pose a significant threat to marine life,” said Russell Reichelt, chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The ship is slated to be pumped dry to head off further leaks.<\/p>\n

But Shenzhen Energy Group, which owns the ship and is a subsidiary of COSCO Oceania Pty. Ltd. — China’s largest shipping operator — could face $920,000 in fines.<\/p>\n

“From where I see it, it is outrageous that any vessel could find itself [seven miles] off course, it seems, in the Great Barrier Reef,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday after flying over the accident site.<\/p>\n

The harbor master at the Queensland state port where the Chinese vessel had docked before departure said the ship was taking a “recognized route” through the reef. About 3,000 ships a year leave that Gladstone port carrying coal and other commodities to Asia (Bennett\/Glionna, Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>, April 6). – DFM<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Greenwire: When a massive Chinese coal carrier ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef on Saturday after traveling miles outside its designated shipping lane, it raised questions about what sort of guidances these ships are required to have. The Australian government does not require trained marine pilots to assist ships in avoiding hazards such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}