12 May 2016

Boat re-floated after grounding off Whitianga

Update as at 11.30am

There’s been a very successful resolution to the grounding of a 20-metre fishing vessel on Red Mercury Island, 30 kilometres off Whitianga, this morning.

With Waikato Regional Council craft and fuel-containment booms standing by on site, the vessel’s crew was able to use an anchor and winch during high tide to haul it off the rocks where it became stuck overnight. No fuel went into the sea during the grounding and re-floating.

“This is a great outcome considering the risk of some of the 9000 litres of diesel aboard getting into the sea,” said the council’s regional on-scene commander Dave Lovatt.

“The vessel that was grounded is now safely back at sea and there have been no injuries to the crew. This is a great outcome to a potentially risky situation.”

Exactly why the vessel grounded has still to be determined, Mr Lovatt added.

At 3am this morning, the council had formally declared a tier 2 regional marine oil spill response to help it manage the situation as efforts were made to refloat the boat and to deal with any fuel that might leak. An incident control centre was activated in Hamilton.

“We take any grounding like this very seriously in terms of the risk to the environment. We’re happy the situation has been successfully resolved and our staff and equipment are now being stood down,” said Mr Lovatt.

The crew was cooperative and had carried out a successful salvage, he added.

ends

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