Australia Races to Stabilise Ship Stranded on Great Barrier Reef

by Barbara McPherson | April 5, 2010 at 09:31 am

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Australia is racing to stabilise a leaking freighter stranded on the Great Barrier Reef. The Chinese bulk carrier, the Shen Neng 1 ran aground Saturday on the Great Barrier Reef. It has been leaking oil into the waters of the World Heritage site.

Anna Bligh, the premier of Queensland state, said the ship was in a restricted zone that was "totally off limits" to shipping and the ship's Chinese owners could be fined up to A$1m ($920,000) and the captain handed a A$250,000 fine.

She said that salvage crews were assessing how they might refloat the carrier stranded some 70km east of the Great Keppel resort island, but warned that the operation could take weeks.

Experts boarded the coal and fuel oil freighter on Monday to assess the situation. They will try to prevent the ship from moving and further opening the gap in the hull. There are fears that the bulk carrier will break apart, spilling nearly 1 000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the delicate ecosystem.

Questions are being asked as to how the captain of the grounded ship could have strayed so far off course. Australia does not require a pilot for ships in this area because the channel is about 10 miles wide. The ship grounded on a shoal 17 miles off course.