WATCHKEEPING standards on two vessels that collided off the coast of New Zealand in July fell “well short of good industry practice”, according to a report on the incident from the NZ Transport Accident Investigation Commission.
According to the commission’s report, the collision happened at about 0400 on 28 July 2021 when the longline fishing vessel Commission was motoring at about 6 knots while laying out about 22 nautical miles of fishing line about 70 nautical miles off the coast in the Bay of Plenty.
It was then that Commission collided with the stationary container vessel Kota Lembah, which had been drifting in the area for several days while waiting for the next available berth at its next port, Auckland.
Kota Lembah suffered scraping along its hull near the bow and Commission suffered damage to its stabiliser arm and wheelhouse structure. The hull of neither vessel was breached in the collision and nobody was injured.
TAIC said Commission’s crew had detected the presence of the Kota Lembah on radar but made no attempt to sight the ship or plot it on the radar. There was nobody keeping watch in the wheelhouse at the time of the collision.
The bridge team on Kota Lembah had seen and were plotting Commission on the radar, and despite Kota Lembah being required to give way to Commission under the applicable collision prevention rules, it did not do so.
“The watchkeeping standards on both vessels fell well short of good industry practice,” TAIC said.
“It was about as likely as not that the Commission’s skipper was to some degree suffering from the effects of fatigue at the time.”
TAIC said adhering to the rules for preventing collisions at sea is the best defence against being involved in a collision.
“When one vessel deviates from these rules, the risk of collision will be significantly higher,” the commission said.
“When two vessels deviate from them a collision becomes almost inevitable.”
