Of all the places in the world that a Chinese coal carrier could have ran aground, the Great Barrier Reef was probably the worst.
Australians take protection of the environment very seriously. So when the Chinese senior officer steamed his 750-foot bulk carrier into the country’s most treasured possession at full speed, there was always going to be trouble.
But is it right to criminalise the incident and jail those responsible? The Aussie government thinks so.
It has promised to “throw the book” at the master and the senior officer of Shen Neng 1 that tore a two-mile slice out of the Great Barrier Reef on April 3 and dumped a slick of bunker oil in the area. Salvers managed to refloat the bulker on Monday without spilling more fuel.
The Chinese ship’s captain faces a US$51,200 fine and the 44-year-old chief officer in charge of the vessel at the time the damage was caused faces three years in prison and a fine of up to US$205,000.
The ship was apparently 15 nautical miles from the recognised shipping lane when it smacked into Douglas Shoal. The Aussies say it was taking a short cut, mate.
This is the latest incident in a long-running saga where the crew of vessels involved in maritime accidents are held criminally responsible. It is often difficult to find the owners of a vessel so arresting and charging the captain and officers on duty is an easy way out.
But it is often desperately unfair. Hebei Spirit captain Jasprit Chawla and his chief officer Syam Chetan would agree with that. They spent a lot of time in a Korean jail after a runaway Samsung barge put a hole in the side of their VLCC in 2007 and were finally freed in June last year.
Idiot politics by a Korean government more interested in saving face than serving justice.
A victim of even more appalling treatment at the hands of a vindictive government was Apostolos Mangouras. He was the unfortunate master of the Prestige that sank in 2002 off the coast of north-west Spain, spilling most of its 77,000 tonne crude oil cargo.
Mangouras was barred from taking his stricken tanker into Spanish, Portuguese and French waters and it eventually went down in bad weather. He was charged and is out on euro 3 million bail.
So what is the solution? Should the officers of ships be jailed for being on the bridge during an accident? Or are the owners liable? Who pays for the clean up – classification societies, insurers, owners?
With the volume of commodities carried by sea increasing rapidly and travelling longer distances, there are bound to be many more Hebei Spirit and Prestige incidents before these questions are answered. And many more seafarers behind bars.