I can't see the nation of registery having to do with liability.
if high fines have any tendency to reduce accidents, they might result in lower premiums.
Shen Neng 1 causes 'kilometres of damage' to reef
Updated 1 hour 30 minutes ago
The Chinese coal-carrier has been towed to safe anchorage off Great Keppel Island. (ABC News)
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) says a Chinese coal carrier has caused kilometres of damage to the reef off central Queensland.
The Shen Neng 1 has been refloated and moved from Douglas Shoal, where it was grounded for 10 days.
GBRMPA spokesman David Wachenfeld says the damage is worse than expected and stretches for three kilometres.
"This is by far the largest ship grounding scar we have seen on the Great Barrier Reef to date," he said.
Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) spokesman David Kindleysides says the damage is significant.
"This is not like a little scratch on the surface of the Barrier Reef," he said.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) spokesman Richard Leck says it will have long term effects.
"Obviously when a reef has had this amount of impact, it does change the structure of the reef," he said.
GBRMPA says it will spend the next week assessing the damage.
'Not leaking oil'
However Queensland Premier Anna Bligh had some good news for Parliament about the Shen Neng 1.
"Reports from the salvors are good in that the vessel is not taking on any water and is not leaking any oil," she said.
Aerial checks will continue while the coal carrier is at anchor off Great Keppel Island.
Transport Department director general Dave Stewart says a structural assessment will be carried out before they decide on what to do next.
"It could be that given the shelter she's got there with the island that they repair her in situ," he said.
"But we are certainly looking at other options of bringing her back into port."
No timeframe for the assessment has been set.
Three kilometres of Great Barrier Reef damage, 20 years to mend
TOM ARUP
April 14, 2010/the AGE
The Shen Neng 1 on April 5. Photo: Wolter Peeters
IT COULD take 20 years or more for the Great Barrier Reef to recover from three kilometres of destruction caused by the grounding of a Chinese coal ship, authorities have revealed.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says the damage to the reef is significant, with large parts of Douglas Shoal "completely flattened" and marine life "pulverised".
The refloated Shen Neng 1 has been moved to an area behind Great Keppel Island to protect it from incoming bad weather. It is expected to remain there for three or four days while divers check the condition of the hull.
Damage to the Great Barrier Reef caused by the Sheng Neng 1.
In a briefing yesterday, the marine park authority's chief scientist, Dr David Wachenfeld, said the main concern for the shoal now was that toxic paint scraped off the vessel's hull could be killing coral and other marine life.
Over the next few days authorities will chemically test samples of the anti-fouling paint, used to stop barnacles growing on ship hulls, to see if it contains heavy metals.
If it does, Dr Wachenfeld said the toxic paint would stop coral and marine life recolonising and would extend the recovery time of the damaged reef well beyond the estimated 20 years. The paint has been observed spread across all damaged areas.
The Shen Neng 1 smashed into Douglas Shoal at full speed on Easter Saturday, initially flattening an area 100 metres long and 30 metres wide.
But the damage was later exacerbated as the ship scraped across a large area of the shoal, pushed by wind and tides. All up, an area of destruction three kilometres long and up to 250 metres wide has emerged.
"There is more damage to this reef than I have ever seen in any previous Great Barrier Reef groundings," Dr Wachenfeld said.
Dr Wachenfeld added that at several places across the the shoal the sea bed " which is made up of coral, sea vegetation and rubble " had been "completely flattened" by the weight of the ship's hull, which is roughly 100 tonnes.
"There would be all sorts of crabs, sponges, snails, sea cucumbers and so on that would have been pulverised under the ship but they're not going to leave behind any observable trace," he said.
Studies of the environmental effects of the grounding will continue over the coming weeks, and an Australian Institute of Marine Science ship carrying scientific survey equipment is now on its way to the shoal. Several investigations are also under way to determine how the massive coal ship strayed from a narrow shipping route between two marine parks in the Great Barrier Reef and ran aground on Douglas Shoal.
The Marine Park Authority has referred the incident to the Australian Federal Police.
The vessel's operators " who have volunteered to pay clean-up costs " face fines of up to $1.1 million for the incident.
Coal ship crew charged over reef grounding
Updated 19 minutes ago/ABC NEWS online
The Shen Neng 1 which ran aground on a shoal near Gladstone almost two weeks ago.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) have arrested two men in connection with the grounding of the Shen Neng 1 coal carrier on Douglas Shoal in the Great Barrier Reef.
It will be alleged the men were the master and the chief officer on watch when the ship ran aground on Easter Saturday, damaging kilometres of the reef and spilling more than two tonnes of oil into the ocean.
The master of the vessel, a 47-year-old Chinese man, has been charged with liability for a vessel causing damage in a marine park. The maximum penalty for the charge is a $55,000 fine.
Another Chinese man, aged 44, has been charged with being the person in charge of a vessel within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, causing damage to the marine park.
The maximum penalty for that offence is three years' jail and/or a $220,000 fine.
The arrests follow a joint investigation conducted by the AFP, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.
Investigations showed the Shen Neng 1 failed to turn at a waypoint required by the intended course of the ship. A waypoint is a location at which a ship is to alter course.
The men will appear in a Gladstone court tomorrow.
