A little over a year ago there was a major oil spill off the coast of SE Queensland when the Pacific Adventurer ran aground spewing 270 tonnes of oil across the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Island. Now a Chinese ship, the Shen Neng 1, plowed at full stem into a reef about 120km east of Rockhampton on the southern edge of the Great Barrier Reef.

The ship contains some 975 tonnes of oil and 65,000 tonnes of coal. So far about two tonnes have leaked from a tank containing 150 tonnes of heavy duty oil. The big worry is that the ship might break up, spilling the coal onto the sea floor and the oil into the water in an environmentally sensitive area off Shoalwater Bay and Great Keppel Island.

The ship is in Commonwealth waters, inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Maritime Safety Queensland is the lead agency dealing with the disaster with support from the Commonwealth.

The main question arising is why the carrier was in a restricted zone more than 15 nautical miles away from the nearest shipping lane. In the map provided in the Courier Mail the ship appeared to be taking a short cut.

The second question will be whether all ships traversing these waters should be guided by pilots with local knowledge.

Also there is question as to whether there should be a second vessel tracking service to complement the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel Traffic Service which provides coverage of sea lanes to the Hay Point port near Mackay to the north. We are told that the Maritime Safety Queensland and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority are already assessing these questions in view of the expected increase in vessel numbers into Gladstone associated with coal and coal seam gas exports.

There is also a question as to why it took nearly two hours to report the incident to authorities.