Oil Spill causes Environmental Disaster on Queensland beaches

by Takver – Sydney Indymedia
Friday Mar 13th, 2009 11:04 AM

On Tuesday March 10 the container ship, The Pacific Adventurer, lost overboard thirty-one containers holding the volatile explosive ammonium nitrate, spilling three tonnes of ammonium nitrate on deck, with the hull and two fuel tanks being punctured in the heavy seas. The ship had run straight into 9 metre swells churned up by Category 5 Cyclone Hamish off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The subsequent oil spill has contaminated pristine beaches in a large area of south east Queensland, with Moreton and Bribie Island and southern parts of the Sunshine Coast being declared disaster zones by the Premier, Anna Bligh.

Photo: NASA Earth Observatory showing Cyclone Hamish and the Queensland coast on March 9, just before the containers were washed overboard piercing the hull of The Pacific Adventurer and causing the oil spill.

Originally only 20 tonnes of oil was reported lost by the ship, but estimates now range up to 42 tonnes (42,500 litres) of fuel oil. The ship has docked in Brisbane still leaking oil. A massive cleanup of the beaches and rescue of marine wildlife has begun. Inspection by divers on Friday revealed that a second fuel tank had been damaged when the containers were swept overboard.

The Hong Kong registered flag of convenience ship is owned by Swire & Sons Ltd of London and was engaged doing the domestic coastal trade carrying cargo from Newcastle to Indonesia via Brisbane.

The Maritime Union of Australia Assistant National Secretary Mick Doleman said “This domestic coastal trade was once reserved for highly regulated Australian ships to ensure it met the most stringent international safety and security regulations. It shouldn’t be left to the lowest possible international shipper using the cheapest international crews,” said Doleman. “These containers pose a serious and immediate danger to navigation as well as presenting a major environmental catastrophe. At this stage nobody can estimate how damaging the effects of 600 tonne of ammonium nitrate slowly leaching out of these boxes will have on our coast.”

The union has called for the Rudd Government to rebuild the Australian merchant fleet for a “safer, more secure and reliable coastal trade.” The union has highlighted that this is the second incident involving ammonium nitrate in recent weeks. The Panamanian registered Migah Tiga, FOC owned operated and crewed out of Indonesia is still alongside Newcastle after being condemned by class and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority 10 days ago. The vessel had started to load but after inspection showed it was not seaworthy, had to discharge.

The Pacific Adventurer has been detained at Hamilton Wharf by the federal authority, the Australian Maritime Safety Association. The company can face fines of up $1.5 million and the Ship’s Master fines of up to $500,000. According to the Weekend Australian, the ship under a different master had a collision with a Chinese patrol boat that killed 17 naval personnel in 2006 just before starting the Australian coastal trade route.

Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown called on the Environment Minister Peter Garret and the Prime Minister to visit the scene. “The midnight oil has struck these beaches but the environmental leader’s nowhere to be seen,” said Senator Brown in Brisbane. “This is a very serious environmental contamination, it should never have happened. The Prime Minister’s ultimately got the responsibility for bringing much faster and much more broad scale aid on to those beaches,” he said.

Senator Brown and Queensland Greens MP Ronan Lee flew over the berthed ship on Friday (March 13) and saw a 500 metre oil slick trailing down the Brisbane River from the ship.

Impacts of the Oil Spill on the Eco-system

Professor Ravi Naidu, Managing Director of the Co-operative Research Centre For Contamination Assessment And Remediation Of The Environment (CRC CARE), commented “This incident can potentially have a very significant impact on the aquatic ecosystem. Looking at the Queensland coast, we have a pristine environment. What this spill can do is impact these sensitive aquatic environment and in doing so it can impact the lifecycle of the marine ecosystem. The problem with this is that the oil spill will not disappear quickly. It will be present in the aquatic environment for a while. All it will do is disperse, and after dispersing the oil and the lubricant can be there not just for months, but for years unless we actively remediate it. Remediation and management of the oil spill can cost millions of dollars.”

The spill is relatively small when compared to oil spills around the world. Ravi Naidu believes the Ammonium Nitrate is a lesser risk because it will ultimately dilute and disperse. “If the containers bust and it is released you have a concentration effect at that point and this can cause acute toxicity to fish but ultimately ammonium nitrate will dilute. But the problem with oil is that it doesn’t dilute, it doesn’t mix, it generally floats and this can lead to long-term contamination of the coastal region and sea water.”

Dr Leonie Andersen, based at Vision Environment, said ““In comparison to the Gladstone spill (25 tonnes in 2006), it’s fairly devastating. At least with the Gladstone spill approximately two thirds of the oil was able to be recovered – there was a lot of control whereas in this case, I don’t think they have any control. I think it’s pretty severe with the weather conditions the way they are, it’s going to spread it up and down the coast at the whim of mother nature. Instead of a being a situation where they can control and recover, it’s just going to come back to clean up, and it’s not an easy job.”

Dr Geoffrey Dutton, a spokeperson for the Australian Veterinary Association, said “Although all marine life are affected, the major problems are seen in sea birds”. He outlined that cetaceans should not be affected to any great degree, but that many invertebrates that live on the polluted shorelines will be destroyed. “There are also lasting effects on the food chain and to those animals that would normally feed on other effected animals. Many of the toxins can have a bio-accumulative effect leading to a shortage of food long-term. Thus birds and mammals that are at the end of the food chain could have larger amounts of toxins with their bodies in subsequent years after the oil spill.” he said.

Don Henry, executive director of Australian Conservation Foundation and former president of the Moreton Bay Preservation Society said “I would like to see four major reforms come out of this environmental disaster. First, the Federal Government should insist on heavy penalties for companies that play fast and loose with safety requirements and environmental conditions.”

“Second, the Federal Government should ensure Australia has a national coordinated clean-up capability, to quickly respond to environmental crises at the scale needed.”

“Third, for goodness sake, the Government must get serious about tackling climate change. This ship was hit by the tail end of a category 5 cyclone. Just as Victoria will experience dramatically increased days of extreme bushfire weather, the science is telling us Queensland will cop more destructive cyclones unless we make big cuts to greenhouse pollution.

“And fourth, all political parties in the Queensland election should commit to establish adequate green zones to make sure Queensland’s beautiful beaches and Moreton Bay are as healthy as possible to survive accidents like this.”

1. 

   Dilwar Ali says:

   March 16, 2009 at 6:48 pm

   Dear Hannan,

   I am appalled with the above incident. I do not understand how a vessel was allowed to navigate in a restricted zone and further ,how the vessel navigated in cyclone prone season in such close proximity ,and worst of all how the vessel entered centre of “Hamish”.
   There are persistent pollution incidents in our iconic tourist belt
   This time it was not just massive oil spill but discharged substantial toxic waste which seeped though the sand and would have long term detrimental effect.
   Strangely, AMSA was not aware of this disaster until 24 hrs passed.

   As matter of interest, I would be keen to know ,how AMSA has been structured to address these situations in comparison to USA/S’pore.
   My feelings are that you(AMSA) have adequate legislative tools in place, but lack robust communication, escalation process, DRP, monitoring and policing regime.
   I believe ,we need to learn from S’pore, how they manage such a huge marine traffic constantly passing through a narrow channel.

   I attended an EMS seminar this week and AMSA was strongly criticised. Australian Government is spending some billions of dollars in high speed custom boats plus Arial marine surveillance on northern coastline just to deter few Asian boat people, I wonder, what is being done to safeguard eastern seaboard from environment terrorists.

   We, two families have booked and paid for Easter holidays in that area and we want our money back from you guys. Zafrul Alam and another of my VIP batch mate Gulam Suhawardi will be come to Australia in late next month would like to get compensation from AMSA for ruining their holidays. Another heavy weight of my batch mate Quamrul Hossain would come to Australia around July/August would seek compensation from your department.

   Sadaruddin,
   I am enjoying your emails. We have another 10 Mariners added to our database, and now, probably have the largest number of Bangladeshi sea farers in Australia outside Bangladesh.
   We are in discussion with Quarazzaman, Amin, Tauhid and other Sydneysiders to have our next Australia wide gathering in Hume lake resort, Albury. I believe, you must be coming to Canberra for meeting/training . Please let us know your visit so that we can schedule our reunion accordingly.

   Guys, a bit of fun. Hope do not take it seriously.

   Regards.

   Dilwar Ali
   minaligroup@optusnet.com.au

   • 

     Zafrul Alam says:

     March 16, 2009 at 6:50 pm

     Hi Dilwar

     Thank you for sharing your thought on the oil spill incident in Queensland. I am sure AMSA is doing its best to handle the incident. Australia is well known and well respected for its high standard in protecting its marine environment. I wish AMSA all the best in their efforts to combat the oil spill.

     Compared with Australia Singapore is a small dot in the world map. As you seem to be keen to know why and how we protect our environment, I share part of our humble experience below:

     Our strategic location at the cross roads of shipment of goods by sea between Europe/Middle East and Asia Pacific makes us vulnerable to oil/chemical pollution. Half of world’s oil demand is met by large oil tankers passing through Malacca and Singapore Straits. Being the busiest port in the world, a leading container transhipment hub, the world’s top bunkering port, No. 1 ship repair centre and the 3rd largest oil refining centre, Singapore is faced with constant threat of pollution from ships. We have, therefore, implemented a comprehensive policy based on three pillars to protect the marine environment. The pillars are prevention, preparedness and response and liability and compensation.

     Under the first pillar, we have accepted and implemented all IMO Conventions related to the marine environment e.g. all six annexes of MARPOL, traffic separation scheme, VTIS, continuos patrol of waters from both air and from sea surface, a robust reporting system involving relevant government agencies, shipping community, civilian aircraft, members of public, satellite monitoring, mandatory carriage of transponders on ships operating in Singapore waters to monitor their location, high tech oil spill modelling etc. Workshops, seminars, courses and conferences are frequently held to educate all stake-holders.

     Under preparedness and response, we have implemented both OPRC 90 and OPRC HNS Protocols. We have strictly enforced national oil and chemical spill contingency plans, and plans required by ships, ports, oil and chemical handling facilities etc. Regular oil and chemical spill exercises are carried out. We have a large stock pile of oil spill equipment and dispersants.

     For liability and compensation we have implemented both CLC 92 and Fund 92 Convention.

     We enforce our legislation strictly. The master of a ship, owner, or an agent, individually or jointly are liable for oil and chemical pollution and each can be fined up to $1 million or imprisonment up to 2 years or both.

     I am sure, Australia has implemented similar or better measures to prevent pollution of the sea. No matter, how much precautions, an authority takes, some accidents are bound to happen. If right measures are in place, damage to the environment and resources can be minimized significantly. I am confident that AMSA will handle this unfortunate incident efficiently and effectively.

     With warm regards.
     Zafrul Alam