Check on oil tankers ‘extremely unlikely’

Press, 13 April 1978, Page 19

Check on oil tankers ‘extremely unlikely’

PA Wellington It is extremely unlikely tha a monitoring system will be set up as a check against possible Oil spillages from foreign tankers sailing in New Zealand territorial waters, accord ing to the Ministry of Transport.

The Auckland Harbout board made a call last week to have the courses of crude-oil tankers monitored in a bid to prevent a pollution disaster off the coast.

The board decided to ask the Harbours’ Association to make submissions, to the Government. The Board’s chairman (Mr R. T. Lorimer) also suggested that the Ministry of Transport be asked through the association to review existing procedures.

Late last year, the Government approved a national oil-spillage contingency plan. It includes an action committee which is responsible for fighting any spillages.

The committee is headed by the Marine Division of the Ministry, and consists of rebresentatives of the departments of aviation, shipping, Fisheries, Agriculture and Internal Afairs.

The deputy nautical adviser to the Marine Division (Captain D. Boyes) said that some thought had already been given to i monitoring system.

“But at this stage we do not feel it is warranted,” he said.

“There are only two tankers coming in each week, and to set up a whole surveillance system to monitor these and some cargo ships is just not worth it.”

Captain Boyes pointed to the output in manpower and cost required by a monitoring system and adequate policing of it. “It is just not on.”

He said there were excellent radar echoes along the Auckland and Whangarei costs where the tankers travelled, and navigational lights had been

improved in the last few years. There was also very little fog.

“We are not suggesting it is impossible for a ship to go aground, but if a ship is navigated properly there is little prospect of any spillage,” Captain Boyes said. Commenting on the possibility of any future monitoring scheme being introduced, he said it would not be done under the contingency plan.

It would have to be established under the Marine Pollution Act, and the inter-government Maritime Consultative Organisation would be informed. It was probable that the Ministry of Transport, charged with maritime safety, would do the monitoring. Monitoring of this nature called for the imposition of specific shipping lanes, which at present applied only in a few areas such as the English Channel, the Strait of Gibraltar, and the approach to New York Harbour, where the waterways were narrow and shipoing converged from all directions.