Media Release: Maritime Union of New Zealand
Thursday March 8, 2012

Rena-style navigation interference at play in Ports dispute

Lessons from the Rena disaster clearly haven’t been learnt, as new evidence emerges of deliberate attempts by shipping company Maersk to interfere with the navigation systems of two ships arriving into Auckland during the current Ports dispute

Maritime workers tracking coastal shipping movements noticed that the Irenes Remedy and Maersk Aberdeen have in recent days both turned off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) as they approached New Zealand.

The two ships coming into Auckland came in without their navigational equipment turned on, despite it being in good working order, the Maritime Union said today.

If deliberate, this was deeply concerning and showed a complete disregard for the safe passage of the ships and their workforce, MUNZ General Secretary Joe Fleetwood said.

Joe Fleetwood said the experienced maritime workers who noticed the anomaly believe the vessels were trying to be "silent" to prevent their movement being tracked during the current industrial dispute.

Mr Fleetwood said he had asked the Maersk Aberdeen captain in Wellington if he had been turning AIS off on New Zealand’s coast, and wasn’t satisfied with the response. The AIS tracking device was of high concern, and he had wanted to go aboard the vessel immediately on arrival, not two hours later as had occurred, Fleetwood said.

“We will be asking shipping authorities at Maritime New Zealand what on earth is going on,” he said.

"There is no obvious explanation for this occurring only on vessels involved in the industrial dispute in this way. We are looking forward to hearing an answer from Maritime New Zealand on this.”

Mr Fleetwood says if there was any suggestion that navigational or safety procedures were being deliberately circumvented it would be unforgivable.

"Obviously the Ports of Auckland and Port of Tauranga should be queried as to their awareness of this situation, and whether they have any concerns about it.

“But we also want an assurance from Maritime New Zealand that they will not tolerate this deliberate interference with a ship’s navigation systems.”

“Given the vessels are operating in the same area as the site of the Rena disaster, this is even more disturbing,” he said.

The Irenes Remedy and Maersk Aberdeen container ships have worked at the Ports of Auckland in recent days despite strike action.

ENDS

Notes:

Observations of maritime workers on the vessels, reported to Maritime New Zealand on 2 March:

Maersk Aberdeen, IMO 9175793.
This vessel was enroute Melbourne/Auckland and arrived Auckland 0530hrs 29th Feb last.
At no point the previous evening did she ever show her position on the AIS report. Queries only showed up as "out of range", which she clearly was not. Her position only showed up just prior to arrival Auckland.
Subsequently after sailing from Auckland for Wellington she has shown up all the way down the coast until around 2300hrs last night (1st Mar). At that point she was just south of Napier when she disappeared from the AIS plot. Queries said she was out of range. This is still showing this way this morning despite the fact she is due in Wellington at 1500hrs this afternoon.

Irenes Remedy, IMO 9315850.
This vessel is currently berthed in Auckland after arriving from Brisbane at 0530hrs yesterday 1st. Again she did not show on the AIS system all afternoon and evening of the 29th, in fact her last report was on dropping the pilot after leaving Brisbane. Despite the fact that 4 other ships were showing on the AIS who were a lot further away from Auckland, there was no sign of her. Then suddenly at about 2100hrs she appeared just north of Kawau Island, about 30kms from Auckland.
Although berthed in Auckland her AIS has again been switched off until around 0900hrs today it has suddenly come alive.

ENDS

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