The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has issued formal recommendations to three government agencies and a salvage operator with the release of its final report into the near stranding of the bulk carrier Portland Bay near Sydney in July 2022.
“The stranding on pristine national park coastline of a 170-metre ship carrying 950 tonnes of heavy fuel oil would have had internationally significant environmental and economic consequences, and as such this was one of the ATSB’s most comprehensive marine occurrence investigations in nearly two decades,” ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
Portland Bay had been berthed at Port Kembla on 3 July 2022 when deteriorating adverse weather made it unsafe for it to remain in port, and the harbourmaster and ship’s master decided that the ship should sail and remain at sea until the weather improved.
After leaving Port Kembla, the ATSB’s 160-page final report notes that Portland Bay remained much closer
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