12 serious marine incidents reported to AMSA in August

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) informed that a total of 34 domestic commercial vessel incidents were reported in the month of August. Of these, 12 were serious.

AMSA provided a list of the serious incidents during August:

1. A fishing vessel sunk rapidly following impact with a submerged object at Jervis Bay, NSW.
2. A passenger vessel ran aground resulting in hull damage and some water ingress at Kimberley, WA.
3. A recreational steel motor cruiser sank following impact with a large unknown object at Euston Reef, Qld.
4. A non – passenger vessel ran aground when exiting the harbour at Mourilyan Harbour, Qld
5. A crew member lost balance and fell into the water from a passenger vessel off Sydney, NSW
6. A passenger vessel lost starboard propulsion and collided with a concrete jetty in Hastings Marina, Vic.
7. A fishing vessel made heavy contact with a commercial wharf at Port Lincoln, SA. As a result, the bow was significantly damaged and the vessel started taking on water
8. A passenger vessel ran aground at Green Island Jetty, Qld.
9. A fishing vessel ran aground citing poor visibility and lack of navigational markers at Carnarvon Harbour, WA
10. A city ferry ran aground in the Brisbane river, Qld.
11. A passenger vessel experienced loss of power and made contact with a fender on the jetty at Portarlington Safe Harbour, Vic.
12. A passenger vessel ran aground on the reef at Butterfly Bay, Qld

Earlier, AMSA announced that it has a steady increase in incident reports, from 1721 reports in 2013, to 3017 reports in 2017, which represents a 75% increase over a five-year period. From 1 January to 30 June 2018, AMSA received 1611 incident reports.

Incident reporting includes two simple steps for AMSA:

1. Submit incident alert: As soon as possible and within 4 hours after becoming aware of the incident, submit Form 18—Incident alert. The alerts inform AMSA that a serious event has occurred.
2. Submit incident report: Within 72 hours after becoming aware of the incident, submit Form 19— Incident report. The incident report provides detailed information about the incident, in particular the measures put in place to prevent reoccurrence.

By reporting marine incidents to AMSA you are meeting your reporting obligations under Australian laws. Other mandatory reporting requirements include requirements to report dangers to navigation and certain incidents involving people on board.