An “absent-minded” chief officer has admitted dumping bilge water into the sea off Western Australia.
The incident involved the discharge of between 2,000 and 3,000 litres from Minsheng Financial Leasing’s 38,900-dwt TS Golf (built 2017) near Esperance on 14 November 2020, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
The bulker was anchored at the time, a court was told.
Minsheng’s owning company, Minsheng Haike (Tianjin) Shipping Leasing Co, and captain Shuhong Zhang, 52, both pleaded guilty to the pollution offence.
Kalgoorlie magistrate Janie Gibbs will hand down a sentence on 19 January.
Minsheng could be fined up to $222,000 and Zhang $44,000.
The court heard that the unnamed chief officer opened the portside valves and that he was used to discharging bilge water while the ship was underway.
The incident took place 15 nautical miles (28 km) from shore.
A local helicopter operator noticed a green discharge from the ship, which was being chartered by TS Golf Shipping.
Prosecutor Anthony Willinge told the court the discharge was “unsightly and caused concern”.
It contained traces of the ship's usual cargo of sulphur.
Human error
During the investigation, the chief officer blamed the mistake on being “absent-minded”.
Defence lawyer Nick Terry said it was “a human mistake”.
“You can have all the things in place, but there are going to be times where these things happen,” he told the court.
The defence wanted the charterer to be prosecuted, arguing that Minsheng merely owned the vessel, with no control over its operations.
Gibbs ruled that Minsheng needed to exercise oversight.
She said the master had demonstrated remorse through his cooperation with the authorities. He took ultimate responsibility even though he had no direct involvement with the discharge.
“In my view Mr Zhang was acknowledging there was a problem with the ship’s safety management and he needed to improve its management,” she added.
There was no evidence of environmental damage.
