Australia Plans Tough New Shipping Laws

(Dive Travel Business News - May 10, 2010) -- Australia is planning to subject commercial ships passing through all parts of the Great Barrier Reef to greater surveillance. The tough new measures are intended to protect the region from pollution. It follows the grounding of the Chinese bulk coal carrier, the Shen Neng I, while traveling in restricted waters around the reef, hit a sandbank at full speed on Easter Sunday, destroying vast areas of reef and leaking about three tons of oil into the sea.

Ships sailing through southern parts of the Great Barrier Reef will be tracked by satellite and required to regularly report their movements under the new regulations. Vessels using the reef's northern expanses are already subject to such strict monitoring.

Conservationists say that greater surveillance will make a difference but believe that professional navigators are also needed alongside the satellite tracking system.

Richard Leck from WWF Australia commented: "The key thing that we see is needed alongside this tracking system is to have pilots onboard every large that traverses the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area. Most of the incidents that occur within the World Heritage area are due to human error.”

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