Harbourmaster Team Upskills After Ferry Grounding

Thursday, 6 February 2025, 10:14 pm
Article: Maia Hart - Local Democracy Reporter

Marlborough’s harbourmaster team has been doing lots of extra training, ticking off recommendations made after a ferry ran aground last year.

The Aratere beached in Titoki Bay near Picton on June 21, after steering autopilot was engaged and staff were unable to switch it off. The Interislander ferry was refloated on June 23.

Two months later, harbourmaster Jake Oliver had presented a report to the Marlborough District Council with 26 different recommendations for improving the team’s response to such scenarios.

Oliver told the council it was unclear which was the overall lead agency for the response, questioned whether the response should have been run out of Blenheim, highlighted problems such as a “vulnerability” in communications, and called for a fatigue management plan.

He was back at an environment and planning committee meeting last week to present an update on his recommendations.

Out of 26, 15 had been completed, eight were in progress and three were yet to be started. Two of the recommendations were still waiting on courses to become available.

“One of the biggest changes we've done is the way that we've approached our training,” he said.

“So a lot of what we will be doing with our team going forward will be upskilling – using a progressive and proficient approach – so this will really be an opportunity for us to learn and develop.”

Those in the “field based” team who had not yet passed their Skipper Restricted Limits course had now qualified.

“We've had really good support from Civil Defence for this one as well.

“That gives us a lot of support we can give Civil Defence if there's another emergency as well. Council has more staff that are trained to support other responses if needed in the region.”

He said the marine emergency manual had also been reviewed.

“The marine emergency manual that we had was very flowchart based. It sort of worked but it was quite difficult.”

Now, the manual was “checklist based”. Similar manuals were used in the cruise ship industry.

They were also connected with the council’s health and safety team to work on a fatigue management plan.

“One thing we realised was that running people for a weekend non-stop is probably not the healthiest.

“We did well, but it was quite ad hoc when we made decisions. We are trying to get some structure around that so it's easier for us to manage things.”

When Oliver presented his report to the council last year, he said it was lucky the ship grounded where it did.

“It was a very fortuitous location they chose; a soft sediment beach, the rocks are further away, they did it in 4 knots of wind, and they did it pretty much on high water,” he said.

His report said police were initially the lead agency for the incident, but it was not clear where or how they were doing that.

"To the best of the Marlborough District Council's team knowledge, police had not stood up an incident control point."

During the response, it became apparent police were standing down as the lead, but there was no defined handover to another lead agency, Oliver said at the time.

When there were concerns of a Tier 2 marine oil spill, the lead agency became the council.

However, they were packed into the harbourmaster's office in Mariner's Mall, which was not big enough for them.

The report said the council's media team saw reports that Maritime NZ was managing the incident. Maritime NZ had been in touch about the oil spill but had not sought "situational awareness" from the harbourmaster.

While support from the Maritime NZ response team based in Auckland and Wellington was instrumental, it did not last long, Oliver said last year.

That left a “notable burden” on the council's team.

“The burden is exacerbated by the return to normal operations and running of the harbour, whilst the ongoing clean-up both of equipment and processing of incident documentation must continue.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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