Box Ship Detention Upheld after Appeal
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s decision to detain a Hong Kong flagged containership which dumped food waste in close proximity to Fraser Island in May was affirmed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal at a hearing on November 25, 2016. AMSA detained the vessel OOCL Le Havre in Brisbane after a Port State Control inspection on May 24 found that its Safety Management System had failed to ensure crew had an adequate understanding of the rules and regulations related to the management and discharge of garbage at sea in accordance with the international convention for the prevention of pollution from ships (MARPOL). The inspection also found that on 23 May crew dumped 0.08 cubic meters of food waste into the ocean less than 3 nautical miles from the nearest land.
Ship Detained for Inadequate Voyage Planning
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal last week affirmed the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s (AMSA) detention of a Liberian flagged vessel SCF Yenisei, in Queensland in October 2013. The manager of the vessel sought to have the detention of the vessel downgraded at the tribunal, alleging the deficiency identified by an AMSA port marine surveyor was not serious enough to warrant detention. AMSA Ship Safety Division General Manager Allan Schwartz said the tribunal decision had affirmed AMSA’s decision to detain the vessel, which had sailed to Mackay via Hydrographers Passage from Kawasaki without the appropriate navigational charts.
