Daina Shipping fined $300,000 for Rena spill
Athens, Greece based Daina Shipping, the owner of MV Rena, has today been fined $300,000 for its part in the vessel's grounding and subsequent oil spill, with Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby saying he felt they got off lightly, The New Zealand Herald reports.
"In terms of the quantum it doesn't make a lot of difference for a multi billion-dollar company, but the judge made his decision based on the information he had and you have to respect that," said Crosby.
The charge of discharging harmful substances into the sea carried a maximum fine of $600,000.
In sentencing, Judge Robert Wolff said that while the spill had been "disastrous," the company had not deliberately caused it, rather, it was "the result of poor navigational skills by the captain and the first mate."
Rena's captain Mauro Balomaga and second officer Leonil Relon were both jailed for seven months in May 2012 amid suggestions that the pair took shortcuts on their planned route to meet a deadline, and were ultimately deported after serving half their sentence.
But Judge Wolff said that "at no point during the course of that hearing or this has there been any suggestion that the present defendant put any pressure of time or of operational requirements on those persons responsible for the ship running aground and that needs to be borne in mind."
Maritime New Zealand (MNA) argued that as registered owners Daina Shipping had overall responsibility for the ship's operation, with Crown prosecutor Rob Ronayne saying that as the company had not directly caused the grounding, it had sought a $450,000 fine.
Clean-up Operation
New Zealand's opposition Labour Party Environment spokesperson Grant Robertson said the clean-up operation has cost the tax-payer $50 million, and earlier this month the ship owner reached a settlement with the government for $27.6 million.
An additional payment of $10.4 million will be paid to the Crown if part of the wreck is not removed, a position the company is currently considering.
Daina Shipping's defence lawyer Paul Mabey, QC, said "independent of any compensation" the company had already paid $235 million and faced ongoing costs with salvors.
Rena ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef near the port of Tauranga, New Zealand on October 5, 2011 spilling over 300 tonnes of fuel into the water, with the country's Environment minister, Nick Smith calling it New Zealand's "most significant maritime environmental disaster."