By WADE DOAK*
After the wreck of the Erika off Brittany in December 2000, there were many repercussions. Ten thousand tonnes of oil polluting 400km of coast could not be taken lightly.
From this year, all new ships are required to be fitted with black boxes like aircraft: voyage data recorders that
monitor the engine room, bridge and hull stress. The Alliance Maritime Regional Interests in Europe also called for black boxes to be fitted to existing cargo ships, including tankers.
And now we have the Prestige disaster off the Spanish coast. What has been accomplished in the intervening two years? Is New Zealand any more prepared for a major spill?
National disasters from earthquake, volcano, fire or flood are beyond human control. But the prospect of black tides smothering our coastline, in a country where tourism is a major industry and so many species are already endangered, should unite big business and conservationists.
The risk of a major oil-spill on the New Zealand coast has never been greater. We have got away with it so far but it would be foolish to expect that to continue. As tankers get older, their chances of being wrecked increase. The Institute of London Underwriters has figures that show more than 80 per cent of insurance losses have involved ships built more than l5 years ago.
Two-thirds of the world tanker fleet is over 10 years old. The Braer, wrecked in the Shetlands in January 1993 after her engines failed, was built in l975. British politicians are now calling for a ban on tankers more than l5 years old and an insistence on double-hulled vessels. In the United States, double-hulled tankers are mandatory.
After the sinking of the Erika, France threatened to go it alone and ban all single-hull tankers. The European Commission proposed to phase in a ban over a decade, beginning in 2005. By 2015 all tankers sailing in European waters will have to have double hulls.
The US adopted its ban in 1990 following the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. Does New Zealand have to suffer an oil disaster before we move to reduce the risk?
The Braer was a Liberian-registered vessel. Her crew abandoned her when water entered fuel tanks, stopping her engines as she was passing through a 35km channel in a storm. There was nobody aboard to receive the salvage tug's tow-line and she was driven ashore. With tanker age, the risks of such mechanical failure increase, and breakdowns of defective machinery occur more frequently.
Late in 1998, the Austral Achiever had a near-disaster out by the Poor Knights Islands, 28km off the Northland coast. An engine room fire broke out. Fortunately the weather was fine and it was possible to get aid to her from onshore.
Only a small spill occurred. But the Whangarei harbourmaster, Captain Peter Wavish, admitted it could have been very different. "If there had been a northeast gale or a Cyclone Bola going through at the time, we could have been in big trouble."
An average of three tankers visit Marsden Pt each week. As the risk of failure increases with their age, we play Russian roulette with our coast. Sooner or later, trouble will coincide with bad weather.
I have tried to create a scenario for a tanker aground on the New Zealand coast - the likeliest danger zone is Northland - and the prospect scares me witless.
Engine failure or navigation error must be the greatest risks in this exceptionally vulnerable area. The 28km channel between the Poor Knights and the Tutukaka coast could not be legally navigated by tankers in Britain, where they must keep a regulation distance of l6km offshore.
So many questions arise. Do we have salvage tugs capable of rescuing a supertanker in a storm? Where are the barges that could offload the oil in a disaster?
The oil-spill gear installed at Marsden Pt by the Ministry of Transport could handle only a spill of five or six tonnes - a mere puddle, as might occur if an offloading pipe were to burst.
I suspect that New Zealand has virtually no resources to handle a supertanker disaster on our coast. The consequences would be horrendous along Northland's eastern seaboard, which is characterised by a series of mangrove estuaries
where the ultra-sensitive intertidal zone is maximal.
The inshore drift is northward. I envisage a slick spreading up the Tutukaka coast from the impact point, devastating Ngunguru, Whananaki, Whangaruru - and heading towards the Bay of Islands.
If the impact was out at our precious Poor Knights - New Zealand's Great Barrier Reef - it would endanger the sea birds for which those islands are the only nesting ground in the world.
Out at the Knights, the current runs south towards Hauraki Gulf and Auckland. But strong onshore winds would drive the black death inshore towards Whangarei Harbour, Waipu, the Leigh Marine Reserve, the Tiritiri bird sanctuary and Whangaparaoa.
In the bleak Shetlands, we heard of aerosol contamination of livestock and pastures; of people forced to evacuate their homes and breathe with masks. I shudder to think of the consequences in Northland where the coastal population is much higher.
Whole settlements would have to be evacuated, with the potential of looting and extensive economic hurt. Coastal farms and forests could suffer disastrously.
Clearly, we should aim at disaster prevention, with the most rigorous and stringent of safety measures, similar to those devised for the aviation and the nuclear industries.
Safety consultants should draw up a systematic analysis of risk, covering the operation of ships, the training of crews for emergency, and all major hazards.
Navigation risks in vulnerable areas should be thoroughly analysed, and radar systems equivalent to those at airports installed. In Britain radar surveillance systems are being urged.
Here, Government officers should inspect each tanker at its point of departure for New Zealand, rather than when it arrives here, issuing each tanker with a certificate of safety management, as do the Norwegians.
And, finally, tankers and all other large vessels must be routed to avoid the channel between the Poor Knights and the coast.
* Wade Doak is a Northland diver and marine conservationist.
Further reading
nzherald.co.nz/environment
By WADE DOAK*
After the wreck of the Erika off Brittany in December 2000, there were many repercussions. Ten thousand tonnes of oil polluting 400km of coast could not be taken lightly.
From this year, all new ships are required to be fitted with black boxes like aircraft: voyage data recorders that
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