AN Italian cargo ship reportedly cleaning its dirty hatches into Port Phillip Bay was last week boarded and inspected by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the Weekly.
The MV Leonardo Lembo was anchored about seven nautical miles from breakwater when it received a surprise visit from a former border-patrol boat carrying ITF Australian representative Matt Purcell.
“The vessel is allegedly cleaning their hatches in the bay after failing survey in the port of Geelong,” he said.
“So, they brought it back to the anchorage in Melbourne which, we believe, is an environmental risk to Port Phillip Bay.”
As exclusively reported by the Weekly on July 10, the ITF fears Melbourne’s port environment and beaches are being polluted by contaminated waste being washed into the bay by foreign vessels that fail inspection at dock.
Last month, we reported that Singaporean vessel Sat Nunki failed a surveyor’s inspection at Appleton Dock and raised environmental concerns when it anchored about one kilometre off Williamstown beach.
The ITF says some vessels fail survey, sit at anchor for several days and then return with clean hatches.
As we approached LeonardoLembo, we saw that hatch No. 2 was open.
Our boat pilot radioed the ship but our calls were initially ignored.
“They obviously know we’re here but they’re not responding to our calls for entry to the vessel to see if the crew is doing the hatch cleaning,” Mr Purcell said.
After about 15 minutes, two crew members appeared on deck and lowered a rope ladder.
The ship’s captain insisted workers were not cleaning the hatch, but Mr Purcell was not convinced.
“Their explanation was that they were just taking some samples but I think they were doing a bit more than that,” he said.
“What we found in that hatch was a great deal of rust, particularly at the lower level of the hatch.
“So, you can see, if that’s in every hatch, it’s going to be a big job to blast it so they just couldn’t possibly do it out there.
“They made us wait 15 minutes so that would have been ample time – if they did have ladders down there – it would have given them an opportunity to take them away.’’
Mr Purcell said the union and media were doing the job of the government and Environment Protection Authority.
“We think that the EPA and the government – whoever the government of the day is – they should have people coming out to these ships.
“Any ship that’s sitting out here that’s failed survey – they should be coming out here and inspecting every ship.
“Because it’s out of sight, out of mind, no one cares about it.
“I think we’ve pricked their [the Italian crew’s] conscience a bit and now they’re saying that they’re going to bring the ship alongside [Station Pier] and clean it.’’
“Because it has to be blasted, all the rust on board. There’s rust in each hatch. It has to be blasted and taken away by the proper method.”
The ship’s agent, Gulf AgencyCompany, said: “We will not be commenting on this”.
Sat Nunki agent, Captain Hla Aung of Apex Ship Management, told the Weekly that rust scraped from the ship’s hatches during last month’s visit to Melbourne was still stowed on board.
“After Melbourne last time, the vessel called to Brisbane and some remote ports in Japan,” he said.
“The master had tried to dispose at those ports, however, the arrangements could not be made at Brisbane due to holidays, and there were no proper shore reception facilities available at remote Japanese ports.”
As reported by the Weekly, a spokesman for Environment Minister Ryan Smith said the issue did not fall under his ministerial portfolio, while the EPA said it only responded to reports of beach pollution.
