Lamma Island News

On August 18, 1990, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) was enacted into law. Section 4202 of that Act amended the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA or Clean Water Act) to require tank vessels and marine transportation-related facilities to prepare and submit to the US Coast Guard plans for responding, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worse case discharge, and to a substantial threat of such a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance carried in bulk as cargo.

An oil tanker caught fire in Hong Kong's southern waters on Tuesday, killing one crew member while at least 21 were rescued, police said, with witnesses reporting a loud blast that shook windows several kilometers away.Rescue operations were going on about one nautical mile south of Lamma Island."There are still some crew that haven't been saved," a police spokeswoman told Reuters. She was not immediately able to provide more details including the name of the tanker, or its size.A…

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) announced that MOL, has entered into a preliminary agreement to supply a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU), as well as Jetty Operation & Maintenance Services for the Hong Kong Offshore LNG Terminal Project on a long term contract. MOL will utilize the "MOL FSRU Challenger" built in 2017 with a storage capacity of 263,000m3 which remains the largest FSRU in the world today, to provide services to the Hong Kong Offshore LNG Terminal Project. The FSRU was constructed at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. in South Korea and is currently employed on a mid-term charter for a project in Turkey. The Hong Kong Offshore LNG Terminal Project will be located at the southern waters of Hong Kong and to the east of the Soko Islands.

Hong Kong stepped up efforts on Wednesday to clean up a massive palm oil spill, with authorities scooping up more than 90 tonnes of foul-smelling, styrofoam-like clumps in one of the worst environmental disasters to blight the territory's waters. Dead fish, shells, rocks, plastic bottles and other rubbish could still be found coated with globules of palm oil on beaches across the Chinese-controlled territory six days after the spill caused after two vessels collided in the Pearl River estuary. The government said it had scooped up 93 tonnes of oil waste, most of it congealed, and the amount left floating on the sea surface had fallen significantly.

Yacht races between Hong Kong and Macau will take place on 26 September (Saturday) and 28 September 2015 (Monday). About 25 sailing boats are expected to participate in the races. The outbound trip from Hong Kong to Macau will start at 1000 hours on 26 September 2015 in an area south-east of Lamma Island (in the vicinity of Yuen Kok Light). (b) Course 2 – a south-westerly route through the southern boundary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, thence to Macau if the wind is coming from the south. (b) Course 2 – a route through south of Xiaozhi Zhou, the southern boundary of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region and to complete the race at a position east of Cheung Chau if the wind is coming from the south.

The captain of Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry’s Seasmooth passenger ferry, Lai Sai-ming, was on Saturday found guilty of 39 counts of manslaughter over the 2012 Lamma island ferry disaster. He was also found guilty of endangering the lives of others at sea by a Hong Kong court. Chow Chi-wai, the captain of the other boat involved in the collision, was acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of the lesser charge of endangering the safety of others at sea. The two captains had blamed each other for the Oct. 1, 2012, collision, which left this highly organized and overwhelmingly safe southern Chinese city traumatized. The verdicts came down after a 60-day trial and four days of deliberations. The crash was Hong Kong's worst maritime accident since 1971.

Yacht races between Hong Kong and Macau will take place on 19 February 2015 (Thursday) and 21 February 2015 (Saturday). About 20 sailing boats are expected to participate in the races. The outbound trip from Hong Kong to Macau will start at 1000 hours on 19 February 2015 in an area south-east of Lamma Island (in the vicinity of Yuen Kok Light). (b) Course 2 - a south-westerly route through the southern Boundary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, thence to Macau if the wind is coming from the south. (b) Course 2 - a route through south of Shek Kwu Chau and to complete the race at a position east of Cheung Chau if the wind is coming from the south.

An annual oil spill response joint exercise, this year code-named Oilex 2013, was held on October 17 off Ha Mei Wan, Lamma Island, to test responses in combating oil pollution in Hong Kong waters. Under the Maritime Oil Spill Response Plan, the Marine Department coordinated the exercise and other government departments including the Civil Aid Service, the Auxiliary Medical Service, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Government Flying Service (GFS) and the Hong Kong Police Force participated. Several oil companies and Hong Kong Response Limited also took part in the exercise.

A three-minute silence to mourn the 38 victims of the vessel collision off Lamma Island was observed throughout HK on 4, October. Except for emergency and immigration services, all government services were suspended during the period. All staff on duty observed the silence at their work places. Thirty-eight people, including five children, were killed after two ferries collided on Monday evening off Lamma Island. As at 10:00 a.m. Thursday local time, 16 injured people remained in hospital, with two being in critical or serious conditions, and the other 77 injured had been discharged. Flags at all the government buildings will be flown at half-mast for three days till Saturday…