Tag: Great Barrier Reef

The Steamship Mutual has issued a risk alert to remind to operators of the coastal pilotage requirements effective within the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait, in accordance with AMSA's Marine Order 54 (Coastal pilotage) 2014 (MO54). 

A Master and the First Officer of the 289-metre bulk carrier, the Sea Coen, have been convicted and fined $40,000 and $35,000 respectively after pleading guilty for exiting a designated shipping area within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

The Chief officer and the company of a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier were fined and convicted for dumping garbage into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

AMSA launched its 2019 Review of the North-East Shipping Management Plan (NESMP) to improve the protection of the Great Barrier Reef, Torres Strait and Coral Sea region. The reviewed NESMP aims to assess the progress of the work items and improve management measures, while also ensure that those vessels visiting these areas are of the highest standards and they operate safely. 

The Queensland coastal passage plan (QCPP) AMSA launched and funded has been revised and includes all the feedback that the Authority received from the coastal pilots and pilotage providers. According to it all Masters and coastal pilots transiting these areas should consider the information in the QCPP when preparing their passage plans. Vessel owners, charterers, and agents might also find the document useful in improving the readiness of ships by ensuring voyage plans, waypoints and other planning considerations have been completed in a standardised manner.  

Marine science and safety shared a view of a natural phenomenon on the Great Barrier Reef when Australia’s two leading marine agencies joined forces to track ocean currents. Namely, AMSA and oceanographers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) tracked coral spawn slicks on the Great Barrier Reef.

A P&O cruise ship spilled 27,000 litres of food waste and grey water into the Great Barrier Reef during August, as Greens senator Larissa Waters told a hearing, citing a, yet unpublished, AMSA report on the incident. Waste from the galley tank was  discharged by engineers in the Great Barrier Reef.

Humane Society International and the Australian Marine Conservation Society released footage depicting how sharks are killed as a result from Queensland’s Shark Control Program in the Great Barrier Reef. Both organisations call for an end to the use of lethal drumlines in the World Heritage-listed waters.

An underwater drone that can keep watch on reef health and accurately identify and inject the devastating crown-of-thorns starfish is ready to be put to the test on the Great Barrier Reef, as a result of a collaboration between QUT, Google and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

In a bid to protect the Great Barrier Reef and the tens of thousands of jobs that rely on the Reef, Australia's Palaszczuk Government has announced a new policy prohibiting the transshipping within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.