Diesel successfully recovered from stricken ship

Relieved authorities have successfully removed 1500 litres of diesel fuel from the large fishing boat grounded on a Far North reef.


Ideal weather conditions allowed Northland Regional Council staff to board and recover all the remaining fuel on board the stricken roughly 20-metre long commercial fishing vessel ‘Seawyf’ grounded on Fair Way Reef.


Ian Niblock, the Northland Regional Council’s Regional Harbourmaster, says recovering all the ship’s fuel meant there was now no major threat to the environment.


Mr Niblock says today’s (subs: Thursday 6 March) tricky recovery operation had gone smoothly. Final inspections showed there was no more fuel on board.


He says the ‘Seawyf’ is not in any immediate danger of falling off the reef as the steel-hulled ship remains stuck fast, listing to its port side, where it came to grief in bad weather about three nautical miles north of the Mangonui Harbour entrance on Tuesday 4 March.


Salvors will now work to recover the vessel itself which could take some time.


Mr Niblock says to refloat the vessel could prove difficult for a number of reasons. This included the exposed nature of the grounding site and the damage to the vessel’s hull.


“The salvage team is currently calculating how to introduce buoyancy into the hull to help float the boat. It will also be making inquiries to ascertain what tugs are available to help pull the vessel off the reef.”


Maritime New Zealand is currently undertaking a preliminary assessment of the circumstances relating to the incident before making a decision whether or not a formal investigation will be held.