Maritime Disasters

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Filipino ferry owner, skipper to face charges
23 June 2009

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine justice officials on Tuesday approved the filing of criminal charges against the owner and missing captain of a huge ferry that capsized last year during a typhoon, killing hundreds of people.

The charges of negligence stem from a criminal complaint filed by victims' families accusing the owner of the 23,800-ton Princess of the Stars of ignoring storm warnings, said Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera.

Of about 800 passengers and crew, only 33 survived after the ferry overturned in the storm-swollen waves and fierce winds near central Sibuyan Island on June 21, 2008.

Authorities have identified more than 400 bodies, and 316 others are believed to be trapped in the wreckage, whose bow is still jutting from the sea, Transport Undersecretary Maria Elena Bautista said.

If convicted, Sulpicio Lines Inc. official Edgar Go, the respondent in the complaint, could face up to six years in prison. The company is facing a separate civil case.

Go did not comment immediately, but Sulpicio Lines said last year that the ferry left Manila with coast guard approval, although storm warnings had already been raised.

The body of the captain, Florencio Marimon, has not been recovered, Devanadera said.

Coast guard officials said last year that they approved the voyage because the storm signal was weak but that the captain should have the final word, taking into consideration weather conditions along the way.

Justice officials say the skipper and others in charge of the ferry should have canceled the trip.

"They should have practiced extraordinary diligence considering the very bad weather at the time," Devanadera told The Associated Press.

State prosecutors will continue the investigation to determine if about eight others accused in the case should also be indicted, she said.

Senior State Prosecutor Maria Emilia Victorio, who headed the investigation, said she would file the charges later Tuesday in a regional trial court in Manila, where the ferry originated.

About 50 relatives of victims threw white flowers into Manila Bay during a memorial Mass on Monday. A cardboard replica of the ferry was released into the bay, where it slowly sank in the waves.

Sulpicio Lines also owned the Dona Paz, which sank in December 1987 with 4,340 people onboard after colliding with a fuel tanker in the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster. Two other ferries that it owned also sank before the Princess of the Stars.

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Oil spills at record low in 2008 despite increase in tanker trade
9 July 2009
Lloyd's List

OIL spills by tankers last year were at the lowest level since records began, with just 2,000 tonnes of pollution, according to figures from the International Tanker Owners’ Pollution Federation, cited in the annual report of Intertanko.

To put the achievement into context, the trade association added that the previous low was in 2001, with 8,000 tonnes spilled. The 2008 figure represents a reduction of three-quarters on the previous best performance.

Intertanko statistics noted six oil pollution incidents. The largest spill was from barge DM932, which collided with a tanker in New Orleans, spilling 1,570 tonnes of its fuel oil cargo.

Some 400 tonnes of fuel oil escaped from a pipe leak while bunkering a tanker at Donges refinery in western France, and another pipe leak caused a spill of roughly 200 tonnes at Provestenen Terminal in Copenhagen.

Some 10 tonnes of oil spilled due to a defective loading hose when processed crude was loading into a shuttle tanker in the North Sea, while 30 tonnes of fuel oil spilled off Busan, South Korea, after a collision between a small tanker and fishing boat.

Finally, a small product tanker spilled around 15 tonnes of fuel oil alongside in Tarragona, Spain.

Overall, the number of accidents involving tankers fell 4% to 312 incidents, despite tanker trade increasing 6.4% in the first nine months of 2008, according to Fearnleys. These figures include 25 piracy attacks, compared with just two in 2007.

Some 45% of these incidents involved tankers of less than 10,000 dwt, mostly not engaged in international trade, while 35% involved vessels above 30,000 dwt.

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One dead, 29 missing in Qatar boat sinking
1 July 2009
Agence France Presse

One person is dead and 29 are missing after a commercial vessel sank off the coast of Qatar, the Gulf state's interior ministry said on Wednesday.

Despite poor weather conditions, rescue teams managed to save five people from the boat, which sank near the entrance to the Doha canal on Tuesday, the ministry said.

Rescuers are continuing the hunt for the missing people and an investigation has been launched into the cause of the accident.

Qatar's English-language Gulf Times said that among those aboard were Nepalis, Indians and one Bangladeshi.

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Baltic Sea divers find wreck of Soviet submarine
9 June 2009

STOCKHOLM (AP) - After a decade-long search, a team of Baltic Sea divers has discovered the wreckage of a Soviet submarine that sank with dozens of sailors aboard during World War II, one of the divers said Tuesday.

They found the S-2 submarine near the Aland Islands between Sweden and Finland in February but only announced it Tuesday because they wanted to confirm the identity of the vessel, team member Marten Zetterstrom said.

He said all 50 crew members died when the vessel exploded in 1940, probably after hitting a mine. He declined to give the exact location.

"I think it's been 10 years since people started searching. I've been part of it for four-five years," Zetterstrom said.

Markus Lindholm, an Aland-based expert who studied pictures of the wreck, said the claim appeared to be true.

"According to all available sources no other submarine has sunk in those waters," said Lindholm, curator of maritime archaeology at Finland's National Board of Antiquities.

The submarine was last spotted at surface level by a lighthouse keeper on the Market island, west of the Aland archipelago, Lindholm said. He said the keeper's notes of the incident have been preserved and describe how the vessel headed north before diving and entering a Finnish minefield, after which an explosion was heard.

Lindholm said pictures showed the front of the submarine was missing, apparently torn off by an explosion.

"The mine must have hit the submarine hull near the torpedo tubes and then the whole thing blew up," he said.

Zetterstrom said the divers had informed Swedish and Russian authorities about the discovery.

Swedish Defense Ministry spokesman Mikael Ostlund said the ministry had not had a chance to confirm the claim.

Anatoly Kargapolov, a spokesman at the Russian Embassy in Stockholm, confirmed that the embassy had been informed about the submarine but added that there had not been "any official reaction from Moscow."

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Associated Press Writer Malin Rising contributed to this report.

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$20m coast clean-up cap
12 July 2009
Sunday Mail

THE owners of a cargo ship responsible for one of Australia's worst environmental disasters say they won't pay more than $20 million for the clean-up bill.

The Pacific Adventurer, now renamed the Pacific Mariner, is transporting cargo from New Zealand to the Middle East. The ship, pounded by Cyclone Hamish, spilled 270 tonnes of fuel oil and 31 containers of ammonium nitrate into Moreton Bay in March.

The oil washed up on Moreton Island and Bribie Island beaches and along the Sunshine Coast. The cost of the clean-up has been put at $30-$34 million.

A spokesman for the ship's owners, Swire Shipping, said the firm had committed to paying $20 million.

The final amount of compensation could not be determined until company executives spoke to Premier Anna Bligh, but Swire won't pay any more than $20 million, the spokesman said.

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Five dead, dozens missing as boat capsizes off Haiti
11 July 2009
Agence France Presse

At least five people were killed when a boat capsized off the coast of Haiti on Saturday, local authorities said, adding that 26 people aboard the vessel were rescued but dozens more were missing.

The search for bodies and possible survivors was called off for the day because local authorities lacked the necessary equipment, said civil protection official Jean-Michel Sabbat.

The search will resume Sunday, Sabbat told AFP.

Five bodies were picked out of the water, Sabbat said, updating an earlier toll that put the number of dead at six.

The 26 people that were rescued were brought to Saint-Michel Hospital in Jacmel, a port town close to the shipwreck, he added.

The ferry, an old 30-foot (nine-meter) vessel baptized "God's Will," likely capsized because it was overloaded, said Sabbat, explaining that there were some 60 passengers aboard as well as merchandise.

The accident occurred off the southeast coast of Haiti between the towns of Belle-Anse and Marigot, said Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's civil protection agency.

Authorities have asked local fishermen and the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) to help, Jean-Baptiste said.

But Sabbat said passengers from the overturned boat may have been able to reach the shore by swimming, as the shipwreck took place close to the coast.

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Paris court to hear Erika appeal in October
13 July 2009
Lloyd's List

THE Erika disaster is to return to the courtroom in early October when the Paris appeal court is due to begin hearing appeals against the verdicts reached by the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris in January 2008.

The appeal hearing is due to open on Monday, October 5 and to run for a little over six weeks until Wednesday, November 18.

It will close a little less than a month before the December 12 10th anniversary of the break-up of the Erika off the French Atlantic coast and the release of some two thirds of the 30,884 tonnes of heavy fuel oil it was carrying into the sea.

The Total oil group and classification society Rina, which were given €375,000 ($520,800) fines after the original trial, gave notice after last year’s judgment that they would be lodging appeals.

But there could also be appeals from the two other defendants found guilty at the original trial: Erika owner Giuseppe Savarese and Panship shipmanagement head Antonio Pollara, who were each given maximum €75,000 fines

The four together were also ordered to pay damages totalling €192m to the French government, local authorities and other parties affected by the pollution caused by the Erika’s heavy oil cargo along an estimated 400 km of France’s Atlantic coastline.

Total’s decision to appeal met with strong criticism from environmental groups when it was announced last year. French environmental organisations and pollution victims pointed to the relative insignificance of the fine imposed on it in relation to the billions of euros it made in annual profits.

The oil group claimed, however, that it had decided to appeal “out of duty”, maintaining as it had done throughout the four-month trial in 2007 that, as charterer of the Erika, it could not be held responsible for the “hidden defects” from which the 24-year-old tanker was suffering.

“The verdict is unfair because Total is being blamed for causing the sinking through lack of care during the tanker selection process,” it said following the announcement of the verdict in January last year.

“But the company was misled by certificates that masked the fact that the ship’s structure was severely deteriorated.

“Total is merely a user of ships. It is not its role or its business to act as a substitute for inspection companies and classification societies, the shipowner or the flag state.”

The court’s judgment forced vessel users to become inspectors, it said, and in doing so weakened the responsibility borne by those who had the real duty of establishing the reality of a ship’s structural state. “Contrary to what the court is aiming to achieve, this confusion of responsibility could eventually make shipping less safe,” it said.

The six weeks allotted for the appeal hearing compares with the four-month duration of the original trial which ran from mid-February to mid-June 2007, followed by a judgment pronounced in January 2008.

In the original trial, however, daily sessions were confined mainly to the afternoons, whereas the judicial authorities have provided for full-day sessions during the appeal hearing.

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QLD PREMIER REJECTS AUSTRALIAN SHIPPING CO'S COMPENSATION OFFER

BRISBANE, July 22 Asia Pulse - Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has threatened to lead an international crusade against shipping giant Swire after rejecting its payout for one of Australia's worst environmental disasters.

Penalties would include bans on all business interests connected with the Swire Shipping Group and across-the-board levies slapped on all ships.

On March 11, the Pacific Adventurer cargo ship lost 31 containers overboard in rough seas whipped up by Cyclone Hamish.

Some of the containers holed the vessel, resulting in a 270,000 litre fuel oil spill which contaminated pristine southeast Queensland beaches, and left the state with a clean-up bill of around A$31 million (US$25.23 million).

Swire Shipping had originally offered to cover all costs.

But Swire shipping boss Bill Rothery said the offer was made "in the heat of the moment, when we didn't have all the facts, by a manager in Hong Kong".

Despite describing Wednesday's meeting with shipping executives as "constructive" Ms Bligh said the offer, which she did not disclose, was well below par.

"At this stage the offer is not good enough and I'm not going to accept second best," Ms Bligh told reporters after the talks.

"They are not only a shipping company, they have many other products that they have an interest in and I will personally lead the charge - internationally - against their reputation.

"If Swire does not come to the party and we have to impose a levy (Protection of the Sea Levy) to recover these costs on all ships - I'll make sure it's known in the industry as the Swire Levy."

The group's financial interests include airline Cathay Pacific, she said.

Immediately after the meeting, Mr Rothery, chairman of ship owners John Swire and Sons, told reporters the offer on the table was substantially more than their legal obligation of A$14.5 million, which covers less than half of the clean-up bill.

"That proposal includes a very important element to ensure that small businesses, with valid claims, can be paid in full," Mr Rothery said.

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said the government had rushed the clean-up because it was during the election campaign.

Ms Bligh should not be waiting on the shipping company to cough up for the spill before compensating local businesses affected by the disaster, he said.

"The important thing was to get it cleaned up but it's not good enough to say: 'There's the money, there's the bill, you've got to pay it'," Mr Langbroek told reporters.

But he could not say who should pay the cost after Swire's contribution.

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Secret offer from Swire not enough
23 July 2009
The Courier-Mail

A SECRET offer by Swire Shipping has failed to end the beleaguered firm's skirmish with the State Government over the clean-up cost for the Moreton Bay oil spill.

Premier Anna Bligh and executives from Swire squared off at a meeting yesterday after their public spat over the $31 million bill to remove 270 million tonnes of oil from affected beaches.

It is believed Swire offered to pay about $20 million at the meeting - the same amount the firm had previously committed to publicly towards the cost of cleaning up after the spill from its ship, Pacific Adventurer.

Ms Bligh said it would be inappropriate to discuss the offer but the Government would not be accepting any amount that left Queensland taxpayers footing any of the bill.

``You cannot just turn up on a beach anywhere in this country, dump a whole lot of oil and expect that the taxpayer will clean up after you,'' she said. ``It is not on.''

The Premier presented Swire's representatives with hundreds of letters and comments from Queenslanders who participated in a petition on couriermail.com.au

Brandishing the weighty mix of outrage and insults thrown at the company, John Swire & Sons chairman Bill Rothery said he was now aware how Queenslanders felt about the clean-up costs.

``There is obviously considerable evidence in my hand of the feeling here in Queensland,'' he said.

However, Mr Rothery seemed determined to make taxpayers foot some of the bill, saying the firm was meeting its moral obligation for the oil spill by exceeding its $14.5 million legal obligation.

``There are laws that cover our moral obligations,'' he said. ``It's a complicated subject.''

Mr Rothery admitted the company's earlier statements that it would pay for all the clean-up had been made in haste when it was thought the amount would be much less.

``The original offer was that we were going to pay all costs,'' he said.

``Now obviously that was an error said in the heat of the moment when we didn't have all the facts by a manager in Hong Kong.''

The company is expected to take the same offer to representatives of the Federal Government at a meeting early next week.

Ms Bligh accused Swire of trying to hide behind its legal obligations and renewed threats to impose a levy on all shipping companies to recoup the cost.

``If Swire's does not come to the party and we have to impose a levy . . . frankly I will make sure it is known in the industry as the Swire's Levy.''

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Crew rescued from sinking carrier off SAfrica coast
23 July 2009
Agence France Presse

Twenty crew members were rescued on Thursday off a bulk carrier before it sank off South Africa's west coast en route from Brazil to India, a marine rescue authority said.

The captain of the Greek owned Ioannis NK reported at 6:00am that the carrier, with 22,500 metric tons of sugar onboard, was taking on water and listing, said Maritime Rescue and Co-ordination Centre spokeswoman Sarene Kloren.

"Two air force helicopters were dispatched and all 20 crewmembers were safely evacuated to Saldanha Bay" north of Cape Town, Kloren said in a statement.

The carrier was drifting 98 nautical miles (181 kilometres) off Cape Columbine on the West Coast, near Saldanha Bay, and listing at a 45-degree angle before it sunk.

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Search resumes for Norwegian ship, crew feared dead
1 August 2009
Agence France Presse

Swedish rescuers on Saturday resumed a search for a Norwegian cargo ship that sank off Sweden's coast with little hope of finding its six crew members alive, maritime authorities said.

The ship, named Langeland, got into difficulties early Friday after being battered by stormy weather off the west coast close to the Swedish town of Stroemstad.

A search party made up of coastguard and fishing vessels was sweeping the area using hi-tech sonar equipment to look underwater for the stricken ship and its four Russian and two Ukrainian crew members.

"We started the search at 6:00 (0400 GMT) this morning and we also have a rescue helicopter and a rescue aircraft searching the same area as yesterday," said Peter Lindquist, a spokesman from the Swedish Maritime Administration.

"At 0943 local time, the fishing boats discovered an underwater echo (with their sonar equipment) that is believed to be the Langeland although this is yet to be confirmed," he added, describing the chances of the crew being found alive as "very small" unless they had managed to escape to the surface.

The 2,500-tonne, 70-metre-long Langeland had been on its way to the port of Moss in western Norway before it sank.

Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet reported on Saturday that the ship had also been in trouble in Sweden's waters two years ago.

It ran aground in February 2007 close to the seaside town of Landskrona, some 44 kilometres (27 miles) north of Malmoe, southern Sweden.

An inspection later that year uncovered problems with life-saving equipment, fire safety and the crew's knowledge of lifesaving techniques.

Tove Myklebusthaug, chief executive of shipowner Myklebusthaug Management, told Norway's Aftenposten newspaper on Friday that he was aware of the Langeland's past problems but that "the ship had been working fine."

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Sunken cargo ship located by Swedish coast guard
2 August 2009

STOCKHOLM (AP) - The Swedish Coast Guard says it has found a Norwegian cargo ship that sank recently off Sweden's southwestern coast.

An official says a remote-controlled underwater vessel with a camera located the Langeland on Sunday at a depth of about 110 meters.

"We were able to identify the ship thanks to the pictures," Coast Guard official Ulrika Nilsson is quoted as saying by Swedish news agency TT.

The Langeland sank Friday. The Swedish Maritime Administration received distress calls, but contact was lost shortly afterward. Strong winds were causing high seas at the time.

Six men are believed to have drowned.

The Langeland is 230 feet (70 meters) long and weighs 70 tons. It was on its way to Moss in southern Norway, carrying insulation material.

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26 missing after Tongan ferry sinks
5 August 2009
Agence France Presse

Twenty-six people remained unaccounted for more than 12 hours after an inter-island ferry sank near the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa, rescue officials said Thursday.

Initial reports said the ferry was carrying 75 people but this has since been updated to 79, of whom 53 have been rescued.

A spokesman for the New Zealand rescue centre, which is co-ordinating the search, said several vessels and an aircraft had been sent to the area where the Princess Ashika issued a mayday call about 11:00 pm on Wednesday (1100 GMT).

The vessel was heading from Nuku'alofa to Ha'afeva in the Nomuka Islands group and is believed to have sunk about 86 kilometres (53 miles) northeast of the capital.

"A trail of debris from the sunken vessel, stretching about eight nautical miles had been sighted in the area and the search vessels were targeting that area," search and rescue officer Mike Roberts said.

"So far, a total of 53 people have been picked up safe and well by rescue vessels, leaving 26 people unaccounted for."

It was not immediately known what caused the ferry to sink and conditions in the search area were good.

Tongan police commander Chris Kelly said all the passengers and crew found so far were alive.

"No bodies have been located at this point but there are still people missing," he said.

In addition to passengers, the vessel was also carrying cargo for the outer Tongan islands including a new ambulance and vehicles for the hospital in Vava'u, a spokesman for the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia said.

The inter-island ferry service is a lifeline for the widespread Tongan islands. The 34-year-old Princess Ashika was put into service earlier this year to replace the passenger ferry Olovaha, which was deemed no longer safe.

The vessel was to be a stop-gap measure until 2011 when a new ferry, currently under construction, is due to go into service.

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Swire agrees to pay $25 million for clean-up costs
AAP
August 8, 2009

Swire Shipping on Saturday agreed to pay $25 million in compensation - $10.5 million more than its legal obligation - towards the clean-up costs for one of Australia's worst environmental disasters.

The company has finally come to an agreement with the Queensland and federal governments after the Pacific Adventurer cargo ship lost 31 containers overboard and spilled oil off the Queensland coast in rough seas whipped up by Cyclone Hamish on March 11.

Some of the containers holed the vessel, resulting in a 270,000 litre fuel oil spill that contaminated pristine southeast Queensland beaches and left the state with a clean-up bill of around $31 million.

Swire Shipping originally offered to cover all costs. Then said it was only legally obliged to pay $14.5 million.

But after much wrangling with government officials, Swire has had a change of heart and will provide $25 million for compensation of valid claims arising from the oil spill.

The money will also go towards a court-administered limitation fund and to a trust established to help improve marine protection and maritime safety.

All valid private claimants and local governments will be given full priority for compensation through the limitation fund.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said Queensland taxpayers would not be out of pocket for the costs of the environmental disaster.

"This agreement provides the framework for compensating private claimants and the Queensland government for the impact of the oil spill," she said.

"This deal delivers what I was determined to deliver - no cost to the Queensland taxpayer."

Federal Minister for Transport Anthony Albanese said the federal government had initiated proceedings at the International Maritime Organisation to increase the limit to shipowners' liability for the future.

Under the national plan covering such oil spills, any shortfall in compensation for reasonable clean-up costs incurred by the Queensland government will be reimbursed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).

The AMSA will recoup any such payments from the shipping industry through a small increase in the protection of the sea levy.

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Feared toll from Tongan ferry disaster rises to 95: police
9 August 2009
Agence France Presse

The feared death toll from a ferry disaster in Tonga has risen to 95, police said Sunday as devastated locals packed churches across the tiny Pacific island kingdom in a day of mourning.

Police commander Chris Kelley said it was now believed there were 149 people on board the Princess Ashika when it went down on Wednesday. Two bodies and 54 survivors have been found, with 93 people unaccounted for.

Police said the final number of missing could be higher and they were continuing to analyse information about unrecorded people onboard the vessel, whose official manifest showed only 79 passengers and crew.

"I think there is a complete manifest that is held by a crew member on the boat when it sailed, but of course that would have been lost in the sinking," Kelley said.

"What we are faced (with) is that people are telling us is they put people on the boat and they weren't on the manifest that was supplied here."

Navy divers from Australia and New Zealand were to continue Sunday trying to locate the ferry, which was en route from Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa to outlying Ha'afeva when it sank moments after issuing a mayday call.

Survivors said the Princess Ashika went down quickly when cargo appeared to shift and people below decks had no time to escape.

The ferry was initially located in about 35 metres (115 feet) of water but may have slipped further on the uneven seabed to a depth of about 100 metres.

New Zealand navy lieutenant commander Andrew McMillan said the ferry had gone down in a volcanic region with several pinnacles and the depth varied from 30 to 110 metres.

Kelley said he was unable to comment on the cause of the disaster but police had interviewed the ferry master who confirmed survivor reports of how quickly the incident unfolded.

A distress call was sent out at 11:50 pm and only a few minutes later the emergency beacon went off, which happens when a ship is immersed in water.

In a small nation of 100,000 people, a large number of families would know people on board the ferry, Kelley said as mourners paid their last respects in churches across Tonga.

Survivors have described how they saw the ferry hit by a one-metre wave which swept the cargo to one side, causing the vessel to overturn.

"The ferry sunk so quickly that no one was able to do anything, and I think the passengers inside just couldn't make it out in time because the ferry just overturned and sank so quickly, in a minute," survivor Viliami Latu Mohenoa said.

Kelley said police and government support teams were visiting families throughout the kingdom "to try and confirm the exact number and identity of people on board."

Efforts were also under way to identify foreign nationals among the passengers.

"We know that there was one Japanese crew member, with two French and two German passengers missing -- four people who were working in Tonga, and there may be more."

The two bodies recovered were of a British national who had been living in New Zealand and a Tongan woman.

Although questions have been raised about the seaworthiness of the Princess Ashika, Tonga's Prime Minister Feleti Sevele said it had passed safety inspections and was found to be suitable for insurance.

Tongan Transport Minster Paul Karalus said an inquiry into the disaster would be conducted by a marine investigator from New Zealand.

The last ferry disaster in Tonga, a sea-faring nation, was in 1977 when the Tokomea disappeared with 63 people on board.

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Tongan ferry missing toll cut to 72
19 August 2009
Agence France Presse

The number of people missing and presumed drowned in the Tongan ferry disaster was cut to 72 Wednesday as a New Zealand naval team left the site of the sinking, police said.

The number of missing was cut by another one, a day after Tongan police reduced the number by 20 to 73 after careful checking of those reported to have been on the ferry.

Only two bodies were found in the hours after the Princess Ashika sank suddenly around midnight on August 5, with most of the missing believed to be trapped inside the ship. A total of 54 survived the disaster.

The 34-year-old Princess Ashika was 86 kilometres (53 miles) northeast of the capital Nuku'alofa en route to Ha'afeva, in the outlying Nomuka islands, when it sank moments after issuing a mayday call.

The cause of the sinking has not been determined but allegations have been made that the ferry was unseaworthy.

A New Zealand naval vessel returned to Nuku'alofa late Tuesday after deploying a remote controlled submarine to film the ferry lying 110 metres (360 feet) below on the seabed.

The navy said evidence of human remains could be seen in the video footage.

"I consider we have exhausted all likelihood of finding survivors and in that respect I believe all families of the 72 persons unaccounted for can complete closure for their loved ones," police commander Chris Kelley said Wednesday.

The New Zealand and Australian navies have said their divers are unable to carry out recovery missions below 60 metres and it is likely that the bodies will remain inside the ferry.

Reports in New Zealand have suggested it could cost up to 25 million New Zealand dollars (16.7 million US) to bring in a specialist diving team and equipment to retrieve bodies from the ferry.

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Tanker breaks in two on Red Sea
28 August 2009
Agence France Presse

A Panama-flagged oil tanker broke in two as it made its way through the Red Sea towards Egypt's Suez Canal on Friday spilling 60 tonnes of fuel, a security official told AFP.

The official, quoting the vessels's Filipino captain, said that crew members were cleaning up the cargo tanks when all of a sudden the ship "split in two for reasons yet unknown."

The tanker was on its way to Suez for maintenance work and some repairs, the official said, adding that the tanker was not transporting any oil at the time except for the 60 tonnes destined for its own usage.

The 24-member crew were rescued, he added.

Egyptian officials were meanwhile trying to contain the oil spill.

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Boat sinks in Indonesia, 19 dead, 20 missing: official
30 August 2009
Agence France Presse

An "overloaded" cargo vessel sank on a river on Borneo island Sunday, killing 19 people with 20 still missing, an official said.

The Sari Mulia went down after hitting strong currents on the Bataras, 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the city of Banjarmasin, in South Kalimantan province, late Friday.

"There's no passenger list but we estimate there could be about 150 people on board. Nineteen people died and 116 are saved. Those still missing are feared dead," city search and rescue chief Rosli told AFP.

"The boat was overloaded with goods and people. The captain is being investigated," he added.

Indonesia's 234 million people are spread across 17,000 islands and so are heavily dependent on a network of ships and boats, which have a poor safety record.

Up to 335 people were killed when a ferry sank off Sulawesi island in January. In December 2006 a ferry went down in a storm off the coast of Java, killing more than 500 people.

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Madagascar slick clean-up under way
5 September 2009
Agence France Presse

Clean-up operations following the grounding of a Turkish-flagged vessel off the coast of Madagascar have started and damage to the environment should be limited, the ship's operator said in a statement received by AFP Saturday.

The MV Gulser Ana grounded off Faux Cap, on the southernmost tip of the Indian Ocean island, on August 26, damaging its bunker tanks and releasing fuel oil in the sea, the Mardeniz Denizcilik company said.

"The owners, ... pollution clean-up experts, are carrying out beach cleaning operations to remove any bunker oil residues arising from the initial escape," the statement said.

"Anti-pollution experts are working with local residents who are receiving training, equipment and payment in order to assist with this task and we would like to thank them for their hard work and efforts," it added.

The operator said the ship's cargo of 40,000 tonnes rock phosphate -- a kind of fertiliser -- did not pose a threat to the environment.

"Sea currents are carrying any fuel oil to the east and away from the Cap Sainte Marie Marine Reserve and the coral reef, which should avoid any long or medium term environmental damage to the area," it said.

"Over-flights of the area have not shown any evidence of whales or other sea mammals in the area having been in any way affected," it added.

The operator added that the ship's 23 crew had been rescued by the Madagascar coast guard and were ashore.

The island relies heavily on tourism and is home to two percent of the globe's total biodiversity. The majority of its animal and plant species are found nowhere else on Earth.

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Sunken cargo ship threatens breeding Indian turtles

BHUBANESWAR, India, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The mass breeding of India's endangered Olive Ridley turtles could be under threat by iron ore and oil carried in a cargo ship that capsized off India's east coast, a conservationist said on Friday.

The vessel, operating under a Mongolian flag, capsized off the harbour area of Paradip port in Orissa state on Wednesday.

It was carrying about 25,000 tonnes of powdery iron ore fines and more than 900 tonnes of fuel oil but none had been spilled so far, port authorities said.

The site is close to the Gahirmatha Marine sanctuary, home to almost half a million sea turtles in winter.

Port authorities said they had taken all necessary steps to prevent spillage.

"Certainly it will affect marine life if the oil spills. We are keeping close watch. We are taking steps to prevent pollution," said Biplav Kumar, the port's deputy chairman.

The area is one of the world's few remaining mass nesting sites for Olive Ridley turtles. The turtles come to its beaches for breeding every year around September.

Biswajit Mohanty, the coordinator of Operation Kachhapa, a turtle conservation group, said the turtles could be threatened if their food supply was contaminated.

"Materials in the disaster-hit ship can cause irrevocable harm to the sea turtles' habitat once they spill out," Mohanty said. "The food of turtles like jelly fish, mollusca, shrimps, starfish ... could be killed in the contamination."

Hundreds of thousands of Olive Ridley turtles swim up to Orissa's beaches every year to nest, but their numbers are falling drastically due to neglect and rapid industrialization.