The Environment Court has given the thumbs up to new speed guidelines for Cook Strait ferries in the Marlborough Sounds, but granted exemption to three older ships.
The guidelines follow concerns about wake from the ferries endangering small boats and causing damage to the seabed, beaches and wharfs.
The court upheld Marlborough District Council's proposal that any operator wanting to sail a ship over 500 gross metric tonnes in excess of 15 knots had to apply for resource consent so its bow waves could be tested against an environmental impact formula.
But the Dominion Post newspaper reported today two of Toll's three ferries, the Aratere and Arahura, and Strait Shipping's freight ferry Kent, had been been granted exemptions and permitted to continue to sail at up to 20 knots in the Sounds.
The council's regulatory manager Hans Versteegh said the ships had been excused because they had been operating for a long time and would eventually be replaced by ships that would have to comply.
Toll, Strait Shipping and the New Zealand Shipping Federation spent six years challenging the council's amendment because they felt it would be unworkable.
Shipping Federation manager Paul Nicholas said slowing the Aratere and the Arahura would have limited the ships to two crossings a day instead of three.
"If we didn't appeal against the decision it would be fair to say we couldn't operate or offer the service."
The court found no legal basis for objection to the council's resource management plan.
