By ANGELA GREGORY
WHANGAREI - Two shipping companies have been fined a total of $60,000 for the large oil spill that washed into the Poor Knights Islands marine reserve last December.
The fine matches the New Zealand record under the Resource Management Act for offences relating to the illegal discharge of contaminants.
The container ship MV Rotoma discharged a large quantity of oily bilge water while sailing between the internationally recognised marine reserve and the Tutukaka coast in Northland.
The ship's owner, Australia New Zealand Direct Line, and agent, Anglo Eastern Ship Management, each admitted charges of discharging petroleum and failing to notify the spill.
Environment Court Judge Gordon Whiting said the companies' guilty pleas had earned each a $30,000 discount in what would have otherwise been a total $90,000 fine.
He ordered each company to pay $30,000 - $25,000 for the discharge and $5000 for failing to notify the spill.
In addition, the companies will have to pay $79,533 each towards cleanup costs.
Judge Whiting said the 2090ha reserve had long been recognised as a marine habitat with unusual and unique features.
"It has a subtropical influence on fish and invertebrates and is renowned for its clear, warm waters."
The islands were also a place of great cultural and spiritual significance to Maori.
Judge Whiting noted there was no long-term damage to the reserve, but found the discharge was careless.
The third engineer had failed to notify the bridge that 5 cu m of bilge contents and 2 cu m from the purifier slop tank had been pumped overboard.
The crew had not known that the oily water separator was ineffective and the discharge formed a 1.5km by 6km slick that was driven by wind through the Poor Knights.
The mess in embayments and caves, which were important both ecologically and recreationally, took days to clean up.
Judge Whiting said the court had to send a clear message that New Zealand's territorial waters were not to be treated like a dumping ground, and oil-carrying vessels had to be vigilant.
Earlier yesterday, he fined a Greek shipping company, its operators and the captain of the tanker Themera a total $50,000 for a 3 cu m spill of light crude oil at Marsden Point.
Record fine imposed for oil spill
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