Trawler runs aground off coast

Two men are sitting atop a severely listed fishing
trawler that has run aground off the coast of Ruatoria near
Gisborne.

The 18-metre trawler ran aground after 12:30am last night, about 12 nautical miles north of the Waiapu river
mouth.

Rescue Coordination Centre spokesman Kevin Banaghan said the
60 tonne boat was sitting at a severe list of about 60
degrees.

The boat ran into the sandy ground about 20m off the beach
coastline, he said.

"The vessel is on the bottom and is listing to 60 degrees.
It's a lot. The skipper and the other guy are sitting on the
wheelhouse. I spoke to them on the phone and they sounded
surprisingly calm.

"Because it's so stuck, they can't actually get themselves
off. And even the high tide, which will be at about 11am this
morning, won't be high enough to lift [the boat].''

The skipper has been fielding calls from the police, the
Rescue centre, the insurer and the boat's owner since running
the boat into the ground, he said.

"He's openly told us the boat is on a list of 60 degrees,
some of the windows in the galley have been smashed due to
the surf coming in. And the other thing is it has a
considerable amount of fuel on board and that's our other
concern, for the environment.''

He said there was a potential for the estimated 6000 litres
of fuel oil aboard the ship to leak from the vessel, but
initial reports from the skipper told of no considerable
damage to the ship.

He said the commercial grade diesel on board the ship broke
up quickly if released, and would cause less damage than the
heavy fuel oil leaked from stricken cargo ship Rena off the
coast of Mt Maunganui.

He said it was uncommon for a commercial vessel to run
aground such as this.

"We don't know how the incident occurred, and this will be
something followed up through Maritime New Zealand
investigations.''

A tug has been authorised to come up from Gisborne after 8am,
but would take six to seven hours to arrive at the grounded
ship, he said.

He said the boat was expected to be moved after 2:30pm this
afternoon: "Hopefully we can pull the vessel off the bottom
then.''