Tag: MV Wakashio

As the end of each year is always a time of review, reflection, and celebration, in a comprehensive year-end recap, we bring you 23 key moments that have profoundly influenced the shipping industry in 2023, showcasing notable strides toward sustainability.

A Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) investigation has concluded that MV Wakashio ran aground due to altering its planned route and approaching the coast to pick up mobile phone signals, showcasing low safety awareness. 

Three years after the incident, the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) published the results of its investigation into the grounding of the Wakashio bulk carrier that ran off the coast of Mauritius, concluding that the accident was ''most propably a result of human factor''.

MOL announced its opening of a permanent website (Mauritius Website) featuring the MOL Group's activities to protect and restore the natural environment in the Republic of Mauritius.

The Japan Transport Safety Board published its preliminary report on the MV Wakashio, saying that the vessel deviated from its normal route near Sumatra, Indonesia, before arriving in Mauritian waters.

Operations to remove the wreck and all the debris from the Wakashio, off Point d’Esny, were concluded on 16 January 2022.

The verdict is now out and the sentence issued in the Wakashio incident. The events do not make for comfortable reading; “closing the coast to get a Wi-Fi signal”, “lookout released to attend a birthday party”, master admits to drinking “moderately” , another pristine island’s coastline damaged by pollution and the total loss of a ship. An incident that has cast shame on our industry, writes Capt. Mark Bull, FNI, Principal, Trafalgar Navigation Limited.

MV Wakashio’s captain, who was imprisoned in Mauritius for 16 months, after the ship ran aground causing an oil spill, has returned to India after his release.

In Mauritius a court sentenced the captain and first mate of the MW Wakashio, whose grounding in 2020 caused the worst oil spill on the coast of Mauritius, to 20 months in prison.

The owner of the wreck of the Wakashio wants to limit claims from the accident to about $16.5m.