A 755-foot Chinese freighter loaded with coal and headed for China ran aground on part of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia Saturday.
The ship, Shen Neng 1, was going full speed when it crashed into the reef. Just hours before, it had left the port of Gladstone, loaded with 72,000 tons of coal and 1,000 tons of bunker fuel.
The fear now is that the ship will break apart because of the damage done to it. For safety measures, 23 crew members were rescued by an Australian police boat. There has been a report that the ship is leaking oil. A project manager for ship broker Compass Maritime Services in New Jersey, Basil M. Karatzas, said that a ship the size of the Shen Neng 1 would require at least 35 tons of fuel a day and it would need enough to make the two week trip from Australia to China, so it wouldn’t be unusual for it to have about 300,000 gallons of oil on board.
Australian authorities are reportedly dropping chemical dispersants on the oil spill from planes. Karatzas said officials should be able to pull the oil off the ship when the weather allowed. While less toxic, the coal that would be spilled if the vessel broke in two would cover the bottom of the sea.
There is also concern over the damage the wreck has done to the coral. There is an environmental movement in Australia already to protect the Great Barrier Reef from emissions, for fear of having it reduced in size. The ship ran aground near Great Keppel Island. The island is popular with fisherman and has been one area that has fallen under strict environmental restrictions to try to protect the reef.
Chances are that after the ship and area is cleaned up, there will be an investigation into what actually caused the accident. It has been reported that the Shen Neng 1 was nine miles outside of its authorized shipping lane.