NZ authorities to fund fatal ship sinking inquiry

BY MICHAEL FOX

New Zealand will foot the bill to investigate the sinking of fishing vessel Oyang 70 even though it was registered in Korea and sank in international waters.

The 82-metre ship was apparently hauling in fishing gear early yesterday morning when it turned over and sank within 10 minutes, the National Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Wellington said.

Fifty-one crew members were forced to abandon the ship.

A nearby fishing boat, the Amaltal Atlantis, rescued 45 crew members from liferafts and later recovered the bodies of three Indonesian crewmen, leaving another three people, including the Korean skipper, still missing. It is expected to arrive in Christchurch tomorrow morning.

Six boats and an air force Orion spent most of the day searching for the missing men as rescue authorities became extremely worried about their welfare.

The ship sank about 800km southeast of Dunedin, putting it far outside the 12 nautical mile limit in which the ship would be New Zealand's responsibility to investigate.

But Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) spokesman Peter Northcote said it was not unusual to investigate accidents involving foreign-registered vessels in international waters.

Under the International Maritime Organisation code, the country to which a ship is registered is responsible.

"But under those provisions, the flag state can ask for assistance from a more appropriate authority," he said.

"That's what's happened in this case."

Mr Northcote confirmed New Zealand would foot the bill for the investigation.

"We take responsibility for the investigations we conduct, and people pick up their own costs in that sense," he said.

"We're funded to conduct about 40 inquiries a year and this will be one of them.

"If the incident had happened within a 12 mile limit, we would automatically be doing it."

There was nothing unusual with the TAIC investigating an accident involving a foreign-registered ship in international waters, Mr Northcote said.

"The fact is vessels get into trouble all over the world, and a lot of the sea is not actually within someone's 12 mile limit," he said.

"In this case, the incident involved a ship that was actually under contract to a New Zealand company, and the incident happened in our Exclusive Economic Zone."

Korean investigators last night formally accepted an offer from TAIC to investigate the sinking.

"They can call on other agencies for assistance, and that's what's happened in this case," Mr Northcote said.

A team of three investigators would interview the surviving crew members when they arrived in Christchurch.

"From those early inquiries the course of the investigation will become clearer."

The investigation would likely take up to a year, and would focus on establishing the contributing causes of the accident so that appropriate lessons could be learned and applied.

It was likely Korean investigators would assist with inquiries.

"Typically an investigation of this sort will involve inquiries in relevant countries, and we would anticipate that our Korean colleagues would be doing any information-gathering and inquiry work that was required in Korea."

A site visit or salvage operation were not anticipated at this stage, Mr Northcote said.

"I imagine it's in quite deep water and that wouldn't be the best use of time or money."

SINKING BAFFLES

The fishing industry says it is struggling to understand how a big factory ship sank in relatively calm conditions in the Southern Ocean, killing at least three, and probably six, crew members.

Maritime Union of New Zealand general secretary Joe Fleetwood said reports the 38-year old-ship capsized in good weather were "extremely disturbing".

And a union inspector said a deadly maritime accident involving a foreign-owned ship in New Zealand waters had been inevitable.

Grahame McLaren, the New Zealand-based International Transport Workers Federation Inspectorate, said crews on foreign-owned ships were often poorly trained while living and wage conditions on board were poor.

The Oyang 70 was Korean-owned and registered and crewed by Filipino and Indonesian workers.

A lawyer representing the ship's South Korean owner, Sajo Oyang Corporation, and Christchurch charter company Southern Storm Fishing said the Oyang 70 "was in very good condition" and the ship passed a Maritime New Zealand inspection last month.

The Sajo Oyang Corporation said it would launch its own rescue operation today.

Sajo's assistant manager, Lee Gyeong-yeong, told the Korean newspaper Joong Ang Daily that the company had dispatched Oyang 77 - the same type of boat as the sunk Oyang 70.

"As soon as we heard of the accident, we sent another trawler in the area to do a search on our own."

It would arrive tomorrow night.

Mr Lee said he had discussed the search plans with Mr Shin's family.

"The family also told us that they will not give up hope."

Mr McLaren said foreign-owned ships were "probably" disproportionately represented in terms of maritime issues and accidents in New Zealand.

"They can get away with a lot more."

Mr Fleetwood said his union had encountered continuing problems experienced by overseas crew on merchant and fishing boats, including health and safety matters.

However, a Fisheries Ministry spokesman said it required a current safety inspection before any ship was registered with it and the Oyang 70 was fully registered. Boats must register annually.

The ministry had not had any legal issues involving Southern Storm Fishing, the company that chartered the ship.

Maritime New Zealand was unable to answer questions yesterday.

Transport Accident Investigation Commission spokesman Ian Hill said he could not comment on whether foreign-owned ships were more commonly involved in accidents it investigated.

It had spoken to Korean investigators yesterday and offered to either carry out the investigation or provide assistance.

Accidents such as this one which happened in international waters were normally investigated by the flag state, Mr Hill said.

The Maritime Union said it would be working with the International Transport Workers Federation to provide any assistance it could to crew members, caught up in what he described as a "maritime disaster", and also to find out why the sinking had happened.

FOREIGN CHARTERS CRITICISED

Neville Donaldson of the Service and Food Workers Union, which represents fisheries workers, said while the sinking was unfortunate, an accident on a foreign-registered fishing ship was inevitable.

"Although we expected it, it doesn't make it any easier when you see workers lose their lives like that," he said.

"The only miracle is that it's taken this long to happen."

He said many foreign charter operators cut corners to get contracts and stay competitive.

"The vessels that are being used, in our view, are old, they aren't well maintained and it's all about costs," he said.

"That means they bring in low-cost crew, they work minimal staffing, they work long hours, they don't recognise health and safety as an important issue, so work practices in most situations are extremely poor.

"It's an absolute bloody accident waiting to happen."

There was "massive resistance" from Ministry of Fisheries inspectors to board some foreign-owned ships because conditions were appalling, Mr Donaldson said.

"You've got real problems with the language and they (the inspectors) are viewed more often than not as the enemy rather than the friend."

RESCUE CREW PRAISED

The crew of the Amaltal Atlantis did a fantastic job in rescuing survivors from the trawler Oyang 70 in the freezing Southern Ocean and the speed they reacted undoubtedly saved lives, Talley's Nelson branch chief executive, Tony Hazlett, says.

"You're never going to know that, but I'm pretty sure if they didn't get there that quickly there would've been a lot more fatalities," Mr Hazlett said today.

Mr Hazlett said the Atlantis crew were well, but tired, as it had taken some time to get the survivors off the life rafts and on board the Atlantis via scramble nets.

He said the Atlantis would fill up on provisions in Lyttelton before heading back to sea and the fishing grounds as soon as possible.

"It's a fishing boat it needs to be out there fishing - we will turn it round as quickly as we can."

Mr Hazlett said he didn't know how much it had cost the company in terms of fuel and lost fishing time.

"It's a time when you can't count the money, you've just got to do what you've got to do."

PAST STORMS WEATHERED

Southern Storm Fishing and the Oyang 70:

April 2010: The company was ordered to foot an $11,000 bill after it spilled up to 300 litres of oil into Nelson Haven in February 2009. The company tried to avoid the fine, saying that as it chartered the vessel, it was not responsible.

June 2007: It was criticised by the Maritime Union after it authorised a newspaper ad which offered a $1000 reward for information on the whereabouts of an Oyang 70 worker who had jumped ship. The union said the money was a "bounty" which could lead to standover tactics and abuse.

December 2007: A witness in the trial of a man accused of using threats and intimidation to run an underground horticultural work gang of foreign ship jumpers told a Nelson court he came to New Zealand from Vietnam on the Oyang 70. He said he had to pay US$10,000 for a job on the ship, and worked up to 20-hour days for a year. He was eventually paid only three months' worth of his $200 monthly wage and alleged he fled due to being beaten for not speaking Korean.

June 2003: The company was fined $11,600, and had to pay a clean-up bill of $3000, after an employee accidentally discharged oily bilge water into Lyttelton Harbour.

- with SALLY KIDSON/The Nelson Mail, and NZPA

- © Fairfax NZ News