Grounded ship’on Great Barrier Reef [ 937 ]

Grounded Chinese ship’s hull paint believed to endanger Great Barrier Reef

The Chinese coal carrier Shen Neng 1 lies aground on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. AFP/Getty Images

Dive team assesses ocean ecosystem for effects of toxic anti-fouling coating

Siri Agrell, Last updated on Thursday, Apr. 15, 2010 4:55AM EDT

On the surface, the damage done by a Chinese coal ship that ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef two weeks ago appears to have been quickly addressed.

A minor oil spill was contained with nets and sprayed with dispersants. Nearby islands were inspected by employees of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, who hauled away bags of contaminated sand and dabbed oil globules from the rocks.

But underwater lies a different story, and yesterday a team of divers began assessing the impact on the reef itself. Having missed a turn, the Shen Neng 1 was 27 kilometres off course on April 3 when it went aground on Douglas Shoal, part of the world’s most significant marine conservation area.

The ship was carrying about 65,000 tons of coal and 950 tons of oil, but it is a toxic material believed to be in the hull’s paint that is the main cause for concern for the delicate ocean ecosystem.

Tributyltin, an anti-fouling paint once used to keep ship hulls clear of algae, mollusks and other organisms, has been banned by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) since 2008.

But many shipping companies simply applied a sealant over the toxic paint, said Richard Hodgson, a professor at Dalhousie University and an expert on the environmental dimensions of shipping. Should such a ship run aground, he said, the sealant would be scraped off along with the toxic paint, causing considerable, and irreversible, damage to the reef.

“It will stay there,” Prof. Hodgson said of the paint. “Whatever is deposited, there would be no mechanism for removing it that I can envisage.”

The Australian Institute of Marine Science deployed its research ship, the RV Cape Ferguson, to the area yesterday, carrying cameras that will be used to determine how much paint was scraped off on the reef, and a team of divers who will collect samples to test for toxic residue.

Before tributyltin was developed, ship hulls were coated with lime and arsenic to keep them free of organisms that would slow their speed through the water.

While noted for its effectiveness, the chemical compound was soon discovered to be leaching into the oceans, killing sea life, harming the environment and causing deformations and sex changes in crabs and other marine creatures.

The World Wildlife Foundation lobbied for a ban, which was adopted by the IMO in 2001, and enforced as of 2008. Tributyltin is also banned under the Canada Shipping Act.

Last week’s incident was not the first time the Great Barrier Reef has been contaminated with the paint. A shipping lane past the region has been dubbed the “coal highway” because of the number of ships that use it to carry coal from Australia to Asia. In 2000, the container ship Bunga Teratai Satu collided with Sudbury Reef, where it lay aground for 12 days. No fuel was spilled, but the reef was scarred with tributyltin, copper and zinc, which had a major impact on the underwater ecosystem.

The Great Barrier Reef is made up of roughly 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands spanning more than 2,600 kilometres, and is a breeding ground for humpback whales and a major international tourist destination. Officials from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said this week that it could take as long as 20 years for the reef to be healed from the latest incident.

And a dose of tributyltin will only make things worse.

“It wouldn’t affect the fish swimming above it,” said Prof. Hodgson. “But you’d certainly see life that existed on the bottom would be under threat.”