Coal ship heads for protected waters

THE Chinese coal carrier that crashed into the Great Barrier Reef, spilling oil, will be unloaded in a marine park off Fraser Island.

THE huge Chinese coal carrier that crashed into the Great Barrier Reef, spilling oil, will be unloaded in a marine park off World Heritage-listed Fraser Island after weather and safety concerns scuttled plans to tow it to port.

As conservation groups condemned the move, Queensland's maritime safety service conceded it was "not a perfect option" to park the Shen Neng 1 in the Great Sandy Marine Park, 22km north of Fraser Island.

It was shifted at the order of the federal agency, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, after failed attempts to tow it to Gladstone, 550km north of Brisbane.

Heavy seas and strong winds caused high-tensile steel cables to snap five times during towing last week, endangering salvagers and the crew of the Shen Neng 1.

Persisting with bringing it through narrow shipping channels into the central Queensland port risked another grounding and a disastrous break-up of the bulk carrier, maritime safety experts decided.

AMSA issued a formal directive to salvage company Svitzer, which is acting on behalf of the ship's Chinese owners, to tow it to the new anchorage in Hervey Bay, 250km to the south.

There, 20,000 tonnes of coal will be taken off to enable the damaged vessel to withstand open-sea towing back to China.

Doing nothing was no option, Maritime Safety Queensland general manager Patrick Quirk insisted.

"We didn't want this ship on our reef, we didn't want it in Gladstone and we'd certainly prefer not to be taking it to Hervey Bay," Mr Quirk said. "But this is the safest and quickest way to get it out of Australian waters."

The ship's captain and a watch officer have been charged with federal offences over its grounding on Douglas Shoal, off Gladstone, on April 3, when it damaged the reef and spilled up to two tonnes of oil.

Queensland's Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council president Roger Currie said yesterday he could not understand why the ship was being moved so close to Fraser Island.

The area, about 300km north of Brisbane, contained breeding grounds for marine turtles and dugongs, fringing coral reefs, and was a resting "creche" for migrating whales and their young.

"They need to do this in the open sea in case there is a problem, not in protected waters that have very high ecological values," Mr Currie said.

Annie Nolan, of the Sunshine Coast Environment Council, said unloading the ship off the Fraser coast was not worth the risk.

"It is outrageous to bring that ship into such a pristine area," Ms Nolan said.

It is understood a number of other options were considered by AMSA, including positioning the ship off the Whitsunday Islands to the north.

AMSA deputy chief executive Mick Kinley said the ship would remain in the inshore waters for the minimum time required to lighten it.

Removing a third of its original 65,000-tonne cargo of coal was expected to take about a fortnight, allowing the ship to ride high enough in the water for towing at sea.

Mr Quirk said the Shen Neng 1 was structurally sound, despite the damage it had sustained on Douglas Shoal.