New Zealand maritime authorities have launched an inquiry in to last year’s grounding of the Rena, a cargo ship that ran aground on a reef off the coast of the Bay of Plenty on 5 October 2011.
The incident was New Zealand’s worst environmental disaster in history, with the massive cargo vessel leaking thousands of gallons of all and debris into the waters of the Bay of Plenty. Now, on the anniversary of the disaster, Maritime New Zealand officials have announced that they will be launching an independent review process into the incident in cooperation with national government and local organizations.
Director of Maritime New Zealand, Mr. Keith Manch, reports that an inquiry such as this is a routine measure that is taken following maritime accidents. The goal of the review will be to determine the cause of the accident, whether any measures could have been taken to prevent the incident from occurring and whether maritime authorities and crew members responded appropriately to the incident to minimize the damaging effects of the oil spill. Although the causes of the grounding will be under investigation, this will not form the focus of this inquiry as it has already been investigated in the legal proceedings that were undertaken against the captain of the ship, Mauro Balomaga, and the navigation officer, Leonil Relon, earlier this year.
The results of the inquiry are expected to be released in early 2013.
The news of the inquiry comes just days after the Mediterranean Shipping Company, which was chartering the Rena at the time of the incident, announced that they would be distributing one million New Zealand dollars to the government in compensation for the environmental damages caused in the incident.
The Greece based company that owns the Rena, Daina Shipping Company, reached a settlement with the New Zealand government last month following prosecution. Daina has agreed to pay a sum of 27.6 million New Zealand dollars towards the salvage and clean up operation.
Although the sum may seem hefty, the estimated cost of the accident and oil spill to the New Zealand government has already reached close to 50 million New Zealand dollars, and is expected to rise if Daina Shipping Company decides to leave the wreckage of the vessel in place.
The maritime community has welcomed the inquiry as a necessary and appropriate response to the incident, and the results will be used to help marine authorities to better manage and contain oil spills in the future.
