Council urged to mitigate risk

INVERCARGILL: The Southland Regional Council has been criticised for not helping large ships navigate Fiordland after a cruise ship scraped its hull in Milford Sound.

Frenchregistered passenger ship L’Austral was on a nineday cruise when it scraped rocks in Milford Sound in February last year — the ship’s second grounding incident in New Zealand waters.

It was dark and the crew were relying on the ship’s navigation systems to set their course.

A Transport Accident Investigation Commission investigation found the council did not fully consider the risks of navigating with low visibility in the narrow passage.

The council is responsible for navigational safety in Fiordland and licensed both the pilots on board the cruise ship.

The commission recommended the council work out how to mitigate the risks faced by large ships navigating the limited space in Fiordland as there was ‘‘little margin for error’’.

Noone was injured and the ship remained relatively unscathed.

However, grounding was serious as it could damage the vessel and environment, the commission said.

In response to the recommendation, the Southland Regional Council said it was committed to navigational safety and it would confirm whether it had been able to implement the final suggestions later this year.

The commission also found the crew knew they were offcourse and were alerted by safety settings, but failed to tell their pilot until it was too late.

L’Austral also scraped rocks at Snares Islands a month previously, in an area the commission said was not suitable for safe navigation.

The commission released an earlier report, recommending the Department of Conservation directorgeneral appoint a qualified person to manage navigation safety in the subAntarctic islands as shipping activity was expected to increase. — RNZ