The MV Lake Triview ran aground on the Waiwhakaiho Reef at approximately 2115 hours (9.15 pm) on 24th May 2014, becoming stuck fast on the reef, some 930 metres more or less north-west of the nationally significant surfbreak – Waiwhakaiho . The vessel’s Captain ordered the engines to full ahead and after approximately five minutes, the ship slowly eased off the reef.

When the Ship limped into Port Taranaki, divers inspected the hull and found 24 breeches, some large enough for them to swim into.With 400 tonnes of oil on board and 8200 tonnes of soy meal as its cargo the event had the potential to significantly eclipse the Rena grounding.

The Taranaki Regional Council undertook an immediate investigation into any adverse effects on the reef  under the RMA, and New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement,includeding any possible adverse effects to  surfing wave quality on the reef in regard to policy 16 of the NZCPS.

The Environment Court heard the case over November 24/24 2014 and found the owners of the ship (Tri-view) and the operators ( Fairmont Shipping) culpable. The fine was $157,000.00, the largest fine to date for a prosecution brought by Taranaki Regional Council.

Taranaki Regional Council Director of Environment Quality Gary Bedford in his Report to the Court:  Triview: consideration of potential effects stated:

In summary, I consider that had the fuel tanks been ruptured, there would have been significant adverse consequences, both in scale and in severity.

The judge also noted, “Although low the stranding had the potential to result in the greatest oil spill in New Zealand’s history.

And:

8. From the above, it is readily apparent that had a loss of fuel oil occurred from the Triview, it would have been the greatest quantity of oil lost into the marine environment, and because of the proximity of the site of grounding to the foreshore, it would have been in every likelihood the greatest discharge of oil into a shallow benthic/near shoreline/coastal environment within New Zealand’s waters, in living memory.

9. Given that effectively twice as much oil would have reached the foreshore and near shore zone from the Triview as had from the Rena, and ten times as much as had from the Umuroa, it is beyond doubt that the potential ecological and amenity effects of the oil spill would have been of much greater magnitude than for either of these events. 

Mr Bedford’s Report explores the possible impacts of the ships cargo of 8200 T of Soy meal on the reef system:

16. Because of many different potential pathways of loss of the soy meal, it is not possible to identify a most likely scale of effect that is beyond reasonable doubt. The scenarios range from a few tonnes to most of the cargo. However, the nature of effects is more certain,

17. Seawater contains around 10 grammes of oxygen per tonne of seawater when saturated with dissolved oxygen. Soy meal on the other hand would generate a demand for oxygen in the vicinity of or more than 500,000 grammes of oxygen per tonne. In simple terms, one tonne of soy meal could strip the oxygen out of 50,000 tonnes (cubic metres, more or less) of seawater. There would in any natural environment be a number of confounding factors to this simple equation-eg the rate of ongoing deposition of additional soy meal; the rate of re-aeration of seawater due to turbulence; the depth of seawater to the point of deposition of soy meal on the sea bed and reefs and hence any lack of or restriction in diffusion of oxygenated seawater to zones of deprivation; the effects of any tidal movement in promoting mixing, etc; but the potential for widespread oxygen depletion is obvious and indisputable. 

18. Depletion of oxygen stresses and in more severe situations suffocates marine life. It creates stagnant zones. These need not be widespread, and could be created wherever water is quiescent eg between rock or in crevices. 

19. Smothering by deposition of soy meal and its rapid decomposition would suffocate micro and macro flora and fauna. Increased turbidity within the water column would depress photosynthesis by phytoplankton (photosynthetic plankton) and seaweed. Aversion behaviour would be expected from motile species. A high level of nitrogen would facilitate algal proliferation (although other factors would also have to come into play for a widespread ‘bloom’ to occur).

Met Oceans Ltd  was contracted by the Taranaki Regional Council to investigate any possible physical effects on surfing concerns while the shipping interests  The owners and operators of the ship (Fairmont Shipping and Tri-view) hired eCoast Ltd of Raglan.

eCoast Ltd dived on the reef as part of the investigations into the extent of the damage to consider:

a)      Impacts on the nationally significant surfing break, and;

b)      Impacts on the nearshore ecology.

With regard to any possible degradation of surfing wave quality, The Council’s science officer Emily Roberts report Damage to the Waiwhakaiho Reef Caused by the Grounding of the MV Lake Triview states:

In his email, Dr McComb explains that the reason for the surf break at Waiwhakaiho is due to the shape of the inshore reef system. The Reef concentrates wave energy through refraction and that energy is subsequently directed toward the break point just east of the river mouth. 

The protrusion of the 5 metre isobath (shown as a black line on Figure1, coinciding with the most shoreward position of the Vessel) is directed into the swell direction, which enhances the refraction process. Without this reef shape there would not be the surf quality adjacent to the river mouth.

SPS is concerned that it was only “pure luck” that stood in the way of what would have been a devastating and direct hit on one of our 17 Nationally significant surfbreaks, with the double whammy of oil and soy meal on the nearshore environment it is obvious that the time frame  for recovery would be many times that of the offshore Rena event of 2012.

Yet again and after the Rena, this begs the question; is New Zealand prepared to contain such an incident? The Rena has taxed our maritime response resources nationally, and as a nation we are building up those resources, though there remains some controversy around just how prepared we are.

The other biggest “That was lucky” escape was the Tai Ping, a Hong Kong-flagged bulk carrier with a crew of 23 and 9,500 tonnes of urea fertiliser aboard, that ran aground at Tiwai Point near the entrance to Bluff Harbour on the morning of 8 October, 2002, specifics of fuel or oil on board were not readily available at the time of writing this article.

In the mix (but perhaps unaccounted for ?) is the increasing tonnage of the next generation shipping  international shipping fleet,  and the competitive nature of our ports in the race to accommodate them, the average tonnage of 4,100 TEUs facilitated by our ports currently  is seen as inadequate to meet our needs. Several ports around the country are already in the process of deepening their access channels to cope with ships in excess of 6,000 TEUs…

A big thanks to Taranaki Regional Council for their concern over our Nationally significant Surfbreak Waiwhakaiho, and disseminating the information to SPS.

Thanks again to our Naki point man Allen Pidwell for coordinating the info for this article.