Australia’s government has reached a AUS$39.3 million (€26.6 million) settlement with the owners of a Chinese coal carrier over environmental damage to the Great Barrier Reef.
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The ship’s owner, Shenzhen Energy Transport Co Ltd, and its insurer refused for six years to accept responsibility to make restitution before striking today’s out-of-court settlement.
The coal carrier Shen Neng 1 ran aground at Douglas Shoal in April 2010, which damaged one of the ship’s fuel tanks and left a giant trail of heavy fuel oil.
Throughout the case, scientists were surveying the site and testing clean-up methods, GBRMPA chairman Dr Russell Reichelt said.
The money will be used to remove polluted rubble in a clean-up operation expected to begin next year.
“The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is a place of outstanding beauty and diversity, and all who use it have a responsibility to ensure it remains this way for current and future generations”, Dr Reichelt said.
“Since the grounding, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has insisted that Douglas Shoal must be repaired to allow the naturally resilient corals in that area to recover”, he said.
“Hopefully that’s a message that’s been heard throughout the shipping industry and throughout the coal industry”.
“The government has said the complete clean up will cost more than $105m so to settle for this type of small amount is unsatisfactory”, Greenpeace’s Pacific reef campaigner Shani Tager told news agency AFP.
They argued the reef was self-healing and the company should not have to pay the bill.
Shenzhen Energy Transport’s maritime insurer, London P&I Club, has said the government’s estimated costs of fixing the reef were unrealistic.
On Monday, the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement.
“The parties agree that the money to be paid is sufficient and appropriate under Australian and global maritime insurance agreements to cover required environmental remediation”, a spokesman said in a statement.
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The crash site was contaminated with hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of paint particles tainted with the highly toxic anti-fouling agent tributyltin.
