Northlanders battling to keep large commercial ships away from the ecologically sensitive Poor Knights Islands northeast of Whangarei, have chalked up an important victory.
In a consultation document, the Maritime Safety Authority has proposed banning vessels more than 45-metres long from a mandatory avoidance zone around the islands.
It would apply to vessels in transit from one port to another. It would not prevent fishing, where legal, or visits by cruise liners.
The MSA review follows two incidents when oily bilge water got into the sea between the Poor Knights and the Tutukaka coast, threatening the area's world-renowned wildlife and marine ecology.
Until now limitations on where ships can travel under this country's Vessel Routing Code have been voluntary, and applied only to tankers.
The MSA is not suggesting any change to the area covered by the code, which extends to five nautical miles from land, any charted danger, or any outlying islands.
But it is proposing the introduction of the mandatory avoidance area, which would stretch from Cape Karikari in the north, to Bream Head, passing five nautical miles to the east of the Poor Knights and High Peaks Rock.
The code would apply all around the country to all vessels more than 45 metres in length, not just to tankers as happens now.
The MSA consultation document has been discussed by Northland Conservation Board, and board member Lew Ritchie said yesterday the proposals in the document had been welcomed.
Protection of the coast was critical for Northland's fishing and tourism industries, and any major spillage on the coast would be a major disaster.
In its consultation document, the MSA said a mandatory avoidance zone could only be approved by the International Maritime Organisation, which would only adopt proposals meeting its criteria.
That criteria included the possibility that unacceptable damage to the environment could result from a casualty.
Analysis done by the MSA showed the area between Coromandel and North Cape had a high probability of an oil spill, as well as being highly environmentally sensitive to any spill.
Of the two spill incidents involving the Poor Knights in the past two years, the MSA said a December, 1999 discharge had definitely not been caused by a tanker, and a discharge in March 2000 was unlikely to have come from such a vessel.
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE
Ship ban proposal for Poor Knights hailed
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