Japanese bulk carrier that caused Mauritius fuel spill passed annual checks

What a pathetic response from this company; "yeah nah the ship was fine when we checked it. Here's 6 people to help."

Almost reminiscent of the John Clarke skit. https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM

Those 6 sacrificial lambs will be back in Safety Nippon by the weekend...

A previous article on JT stated that large ships usually transit Mauritius by 10 to 30 miles.

No clarification of why the ship was off course and actually so close to the island here or anywhere else that I can find.

On the CNN they were saying it was believed to be pilot error, not ship maintenance.

If the ship was beached, as the article points out, then it was pilot error or the captain's error, right?

Anyway, it's a tragic mess for the people who depend on the coastal waters there for their livelihoods.

If you look at some of the photos it is getting pretty clear that the keel is broken. Any hope of re-floating it are gone.

apart from anything else, this happened on July 25th.... kneejerk-concern-response-syndrome only took a couple of weeks? since we didn't read anything on this till a couple of days ago. I understand that the thing didn't start leaking oil till a few days ago.... but, what? they didn't think this might happen? nobody gives a damn till events show up in the Meeja, then they're all over themselves jumping on the 'see-how-concerned-I-am-bandwagon'. now it's too late. poor Mauritius!!!!!

I can not imagine anything wrong with this mere 13 year old bulker. Clearly the vessel was off course and not where she should be. Which makes it human error. Nine times out of ten the Master (Captain) in not on the bridge and is called only in case of need. Who was on watch? Today's navigational equipment includes auto radar plotting and it's hard to believe a vessel could go far off course for a prolonged period without automatic warnings kicking in.

Because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, routine crew changes are not occurring — because crew members (typically from the Philippines and Indonesia) can’t travel to China or Brazil, for example, to relieve other crew members. And data shows that crew-error frequency increases the longer crew members stay on board, particularly beyond their contract term.

This vessel was at least 15 km off course. ClassNK is simply trying to protect itself by asserting that the vessel was sound.

The article makes it sound as if it was the ship's fault that it ran aground and not the captain, who is responsible for this sort of thing. Weird.

They did nothing for two weeks and now they send six people? How pathetic. They were most likely trying to save face by hoping it would solve itself or be solved by someone else.

Poor people of Mauritius have to suffer because of Japanese incompetence.

Poor management and bad captaining wont show up in any annual check.

Ran aground on the 25th, they were waiting for the high tide on the full moon hoping to be able to re-float her off the reef, but that didn't happen , now they have big problems so that's why it made the news.

The responsibility lies with the captain he is the person in charge and should he held accountable.

Japanese bulk carrier that caused Mauritius fuel spill passed annual checks

Um....the ship ran into a giant rock and sank. How is this relevant?

DanielToday  09:55 am JST

Poor people of Mauritius have to suffer because of Japanese incompetence.

The M/V Wakashio is Panamanian registered. Which means that Master, Officers may have not been Japanese at all. Regardless, the Master, whatever the nationality, will be held responsible for the incident and the Japanese Owners will face the enormous costs even with the vessel's Pollution Liability Insurance coverage.

Who cares about the checks, it didn't solve the ship being off course leading to "ran onto the reef on July 25, and the resulting fuel leak has raised fears of a major ecological crisis" did it? Didn't the company say it had just left China? hmmm...conspiracy of economic and world view impact to keep the focus on SARS2 from within China?

6 people from Japan to Mauritius as help??? That's it??? Japanese vessel but Panamanian flag and low cost labor from the Philippines and India: Always the same...such kind of companies are always looking for profit optimization, low costs and don't care about environmental issues. They will never learn out of past mistakes and other accidents. Now Mauritius will have to suffer for years. In some weeks no newspaper will speak about it and the Japanese company will continue to make money. It's really sad.

Imagine if it was a China vessel.

Poor people of Mauritius

This is true. Ordinary citizens, many Muslim, live is extremely poor conditions as the political and connected elites rape the nature for incredible financial advantage to cater to the millionaire jet setting crowd.

At 02:00 on 21 July 2020, the MV Wakashio altered course slightly, turning one or two degrees to starboard. Four days later the ship had drifted out of the shipping lane, and was 12 nautical miles off course when it collided with Mauritius' coral reef. Why did the ship change course at two o'clock in the morning? Was the captain, an 58-year-old Indian national, on the bridge at the time?

In the age of GPS, it’s really hard to see how the ship was more than a boat-length off course, much less many miles.

it sounds like they tried to refloat it, failed and now the keel is failing.

one would hope that a tanker is inbound to off-load as much oil as possible prior to catastrophic structural failure.

the financial liability is going to be hard to overcome.

They did nothing for two weeks and now they send six people? How pathetic. They were most likely trying to save face by hoping it would solve itself or be solved by someone else.

Arrogance due to Mauritius being a poor third world country, if it had happened in a developed country the approach would have been completely different. Hope, mauritius levy a massive bill to this arrogant company for the cleanup and damage to marine life and the environment.

I suspect the blasé comment that they doubted it would impact earnings is going to come back to bite them when they get hit with multiple suits by government and fishing/tourist operators for the damage their vessel caused. Look at what happened to BP!

When a ship is going off course doesn’t a klaxon sound?

If not then it should.....

Transportminister Kazuyoshi Akaba said on Tuesday the freighter causes troubles and anger as to EU press reports.

While expert help is offered from EuropeAn govts.

Is it a case of market rules society or society Vs markets?

YouTube: 'Clarke and Dawe The front fell off' for a detailed explanation of checks and regulations for these vessels.

I would hope the captain & 1st officer are in police custody, pending complete investigation.

Mitsui OSK should clearly be reacting in a much more forceful way....how embarrassing for Japanese corporate endeavor.

I remember a NY company that passed its audits then went $600 billion belly up. We seem not to be able to trust professionals now. Scary.

Watch France 24 channel and see the heart breaking story of the people of Mauritius doing all they could trying to contain the spill with NO HELP from the ship owner or operator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XHsEMVfQhQ

It Is A Heart breaking story to watch.

Sure, it's the same story I read about and see with my own eyes where shipping trucks pass inspection and they are rusted to HELL, almost falling apart.

""We will do our utmost toward resolving the situation quickly," Mitsui OSK said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it doubted whether the incident would have a large enough impact on its earnings to warrant issuing a disclosure notice to investors.""

Yes Sir, it will not have an impact on the company earnings because you haven't done any cleaning and don't intend or plan on cleaning you mess. France is.

"We will do our utmost toward resolving the situation quickly, after delaying doing anything for two weeks"

Fixed it.

Mitsui OSK should have to pay every single farthing for the cleanup costs, plus billions more to help the environment, and whomever is responsible for the ship running aground, as well as those responsible for taking so long to address the issue, should be jailed for life.

""We will do our utmost toward resolving the situation quickly," Mitsui OSK said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that it doubted whether the incident would have a large enough impact on its earnings to warrant issuing a disclosure notice to investors.""

> Yes Sir, it will not have an impact on the company earnings because you haven't done any cleaning and don't intend or plan on cleaning you mess. France is."

Mitsui OSK is not the ship's owner. They chartered it from it's owners to haul their freight. They are not responsible for the ships operation. They are, if anything, the customer. Nagashiki Shipping is responsible for the safe operation of the ship.

"one would hope that a tanker is inbound to off-load as much oil as possible prior to catastrophic structural failure."

The water is too shallow. The tanker would end up on the reef next to the bulk carrier. Waves break on the reef right where the ship is grounded, making any approach to the ship very dangerous. They have had heavy weather the last couple of weeks, exacerbating the danger. Coral reefs are razor sharp making it very dangerous for any watercraft and the crews operating over them in anything but calm seas.

In the age of GPS, it’s really hard to see how the ship was more than a boat-length off course, much less many miles

FACTS:

Recently, a large chinese fleet was doing illegal fishing near Galapagos protected waters. They apparently FAKED their GPS signals so that they wouldn't be discovered there until the navy caught them. You can look up the story on the internet. They faked the GPS signals to make it look like they were in NEW ZEALAND....some 10,000km away.

The Japanese ship had left china before this incident.

What makes you think a ship's navigation systems cannot be hacked or tempered with while in the port of a communist country?

"What makes you think a ship's navigation systems cannot be hacked or tempered with while in the port of a communist country?"

Sigh. To what end? What does China accomplish by this, if it even happened? What does China gain? Any such hack will be discovered during the mishap investigation and revealed. The ships navigation systems are going to be a focus of the investigation so there would be no way to hide a hack. China would look horrible and for no apparent benefit to them. Seems like a nonsensical thing to do. No, this one was in all likelihood human error. Crew rotations for commercial ships have been on hold since February. Crew members are prohibited from disembarking in ports they are unloading or loading in to stretch their legs and sight see, stuck on their ships for the duration of the port call. Some crews have been at sea continuously for as long as 15 months. Many cruise ship crews remain quarantined on their cruise ships. Tens of thousands of workers imprisoned on their ship, prohibited from setting foot ashore by governments all over the world. They are worn out and the world is completely unconcerned.

"FACTS:

Recently, a large chinese fleet was doing illegal fishing near Galapagos protected waters. They apparently FAKED their GPS signals so that they wouldn't be discovered there until the navy caught them. You can look up the story on the internet. They faked the GPS signals to make it look like they were in NEW ZEALAND....some 10,000km away.'

No, not true at all. A large fleet of mostly Chinese and some Panamanian fishing vessels comes through Ecuadoran waters off the Galapagos every year around this time and have done so for many years. The Ecuadoran Navy and AIr Force have been tracking them as they approached. Under pressure the Chinese government publicly accepted Ecuadoran supervision of the fleets fishing activities.

And now it has become clear: the MV Wakashio changed course to approach Mauritius in order to be near enough to use the Wi-Fi because of a member of the crew's birthday on the 25th of July...