According to a recent statement, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has signed a contract with the aim to remove the pollution caused by the container ship YM Efficiency, when it lost 81 containers off Newcastle last year.
In fact, it was on 1st June 2018, when a total of 83 containers went overboard from the Liberian-flagged container ship ‘YM Efficiency’, when the vessel encountered heavy weather while underway off the Australian coast. An additional total of 30 vans collapsed remaining on deck, according to master’s report.
The vessel, owned by the Chinese company Yang Ming Marine Transport, was en route from Kaohsiung to Sydney, loaded with 3307 TEU onboard, when it encountered inclement weather, which caused the containers to go overboard.
On December 3rd, 2018, AMSA began an ROUV assessment of the containers. As seen in a video, issued by AMSA, some of the containers found appear to be severely damaged with large sections of container and their contents spread around the sites. these images aimed to allow an assessment by salvage experts on whether the items can be brought to the surface safely and without causing more damage to the environment.
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On 9 August 2019 AMSA released an open proposal to the industry calling for plans to remove the containers; seven submissions were received by the deadline of September 23.
After this, AMSA signed a contract with Ardent Oceania Pty Ltd to remove 60 containers and associated debris from the waters off the coast of Newcastle and Port Stephens.
In May, the Australian transportation Safety Bureau (ATSB) announced that the investigation into the loss of containers overboard from YM Efficiency, off Newcastle, was in the examination and analysis phase, ATSB said in a new statement.
During this phase, evidence was reviewed and evaluated to determine its relevance, validity, credibility and, relationship to other evidence and, to the occurrence.
“Examination and analysis require reviewing complex sets of data, and available evidence can be vague, incomplete and or contradictory. This may prompt the collection of more evidence, which in turn needs to be analyzed and examined, potentially adding to the length of an investigation,” it explained.
It is now said that, of the 81 containers lost, five have already been recovered whereas a further 16 remain undetected by the underwater surveys.
According to the statement, AMSA is committed to
keeping the local community informed about the clean-up operation and will be holding community information sessions in the new year where members of the public will be given a detailed briefing on how the clean-up will take place and can ask any questions they like.
