NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Skipper not surprised at Oyang sinking

By Rosaleen Macbrayne of APNZ
APNZ·
19 Apr, 2012 08:10 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The Oyang 70 fishing trawler in the South Pacific. Photo / NZDF

The Oyang 70 fishing trawler in the South Pacific. Photo / NZDF

The skipper of a New Zealand fishing trawler which rescued survivors of the capsized Oyang 70 in the Southern Ocean says he is not surprised the 82 metre Korean vessel sank in the way she did.

"The fact that the captain went down with the ship shows to me that he knew what he had done was wrong," Greg Lyall of Christchurch told a Coroner's Court hearing in Wellington today.

His impression was that the cause of the sinking could be attributed to the size of the catch being hauled at the time, he said.

A large net holding an estimated 120-130 tonnes was said to have been pulled aboard the Oyang 70 in the early hours of August 18, 2010, causing the vessel to lean and take on water, the inquest heard earlier this week.

Korean captain Hyonki Shin was loathe to dump the catch in time to save his ship. As panicking crew members ran to release inflatable life rafts or dived overboard into the freezing sea, Mr Shin refused a life jacket and, clinging to a pole on the bridge, went down with the 38-year-old vessel.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

His body, along with those of two Indonesian sailors, was not recovered. However, those of three other Indonesian crewmen were.

Mr Lyall said if the Oyang's processing factory was full from the previous bag and a large net full of fish was hauled onto the main deck, it would have affected the vessel's stability.

Southern blue whiting - thought to have been the bulk of the haul - was "a very fluid fish" which would slump easily and, if uncontained, would move freely from side to side.

He said if the boat was "light ship" and had sailed with less than a full load of fuel, combined with the fact there were fish in the pounds and a huge catch on deck, it could have caused the vessel to roll heavily.

That, in turn, would allow more water to enter the factory deck, increasing the list and resulting in the ship going over and sinking.

Discover more

New Zealand|politics

Inquest into Oyang 70 fishing tragedy opens

15 Apr 07:50 PM
New Zealand|politics

Oyang 70 destablised by huge catch, inquest hears

16 Apr 06:33 AM
Freight and logistics

Crackdown on foreign fishing boats

22 May 01:11 AM

He had been told that fish was being processed in the factory and there were more fish in the ponds, Mr Lyall said.

On his ship, the Amaltal Atlantis, the practise was not to fish while processing.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We fish for quality, not quantity."

He described the dramatic hours which followed the sinking in the early hours of August 18, 2010, in calm seas near the Bounty Islands, 740km east of Otago.

The South Island-based Amaltal Atlantis was three days into a 45-day fishing trip to the area and was the first of several fishing trawlers which rushed to the scene of the capsized Oyang 70 in after a mayday call. The crew found themselves in a "large debris field" in poor visibility, the inquest heard today.

Mr Lyall said a strong smell of diesel alerted the New Zealand rescuers to the scene in the thick fog. Life rafts, ropes, cod ends, nets and deck boards from the sunken ship cluttered the area.

"This complicated the rescue efforts as the ropes kept fouling the propeller of our rescue boat," he said.

The three crew members had to raise the motor of the Zodiac inflatable 10 or 12 times to cut debris away.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A Russian vessel in the immediate area also deployed a rescue craft but was unable to assist as its props were fouled quickly by floating rope.

The sole rescue boat managed to recover three life rafts from the sunken ship before a fourth was seen containing three people partly submerged in water and oil. Two of them seemed to be suffering from bad hypothermia, and after being winched aboard Atlantis they were warmed up and put to bed.

Mr Lyall said it was difficult communicating with skippers of other fishing vessels which arrived at the scene. Language difficulties made it hard to coordinate the rescue attempt.

Three bodies retrieved from the water were those of Indonesian sailors Samsuri, 39, Taefur, 35, [SUBS TICK] and Heru Yuniartu, 25.

Those of two other Indonesians and the Oyang 70's Korean skipper have not been found.

Through the long hours of the rescue, the New Zealanders picked up the four remaining life rafts from the Oyang.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

That, said Mr Lyall, was so other ships searching would not think there were survivors on the rafts.

"We also recovered two long lengths of mooring lines so vessels would not get entangled."

In all, 45 crew members survived.

The Amaltal Atlantis crew and company have been lauded for their part in the rescue.

Coroner Richard McElrea expressed his thanks before he adjourned the inquest this afternoon.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand|crime

'Please do not do it': Man inflected intense pain on woman during violation

04 Jul 08:00 AM
New Zealand|crime

'Couldn't even walk': Hospo staff foil legless drunk driver who blew six times legal limit

04 Jul 07:20 AM
Wellington

'Amazing woman': Kiwi killed by elephant remembered as adventurous traveller

04 Jul 06:53 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

'Please do not do it': Man inflected intense pain on woman during violation

'Please do not do it': Man inflected intense pain on woman during violation

04 Jul 08:00 AM

Judge Tompkins said Michael Mead, 64, posed a 'very high risk' in the future.

'Couldn't even walk': Hospo staff foil legless drunk driver who blew six times legal limit

'Couldn't even walk': Hospo staff foil legless drunk driver who blew six times legal limit

04 Jul 07:20 AM
'Amazing woman': Kiwi killed by elephant remembered as adventurous traveller

'Amazing woman': Kiwi killed by elephant remembered as adventurous traveller

04 Jul 06:53 AM
Royal NZ Air Force establishes first dedicated space unit

Royal NZ Air Force establishes first dedicated space unit

04 Jul 06:24 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP