The Canada Shipping Act stipulates that a vessel owner is strictly liable for any pollution caused by the vessel, regardless of the cause. In other words Canada operates on the polluter pays principal.
In most cases, vessel owners and their insurers will hire contractors to perform the cleanup. But what happens when the polluter doesn’t pay?
The Ship-Source Oil Pollution fund, or SOPF, was established as the Maritime Pollution Claims fund in 1973 to pay claims for oil pollution cleanup. The fund was established with a levy on oil imports and exports between 1972 and 1976, and is currently worth $405 million.
The fund investigates and pays claims for cleanup costs, and then attempts to collect from ship owners.
The SOPF recently won two judgments in federal court against Tracy Dodd. The first was related to the 2015 sinking of the Farley Mowat in Shelburne Harbour. The coast guard claimed $839,862.02 for the refloating and cleanup of the ship.
The second judgment related to the 2014 sinking of the Ryan Atlantic II in Bridgewater. That former fishing trawler sank in 2014, and was refloated and cleaned up by the coast guard, which made a claim to the SOPF for $382,353.33.
The Hannah Atlantic, another trawler owned by Dodd, was subject of a cleanup claim in 2014.
The SOPF has two outstanding claims on the Farley Mowat, the first from the Town of Shelburne, for costs related to the 2015 sinking and a second claim from the coast guard for the ships disposal in 2017.
Dodd was previously ordered to pay $140,000 in unpaid berthage fees to Shelburne, and spent 20 days in jail for failing to remove the ship by a court imposed deadline.
The SOPF was recently in the news when Vancouver claimed for costs related to the spill from the Marathassa. The city received a settlement offer from the fund that was a fraction of the claim, prompting the city to sue the ship directly, despite the SOPF working with the Marathassa’s insurer.
Derelict and abandoned vessels have been a problem in Nova Scotia, and have been responsible for 13 per cent of all claims paid by the SOPF. Probably the best-known abandoned vessel in Nova Scotia was the M/V Miner, which ended up beached on Scatarie Island.
The retired bulker was being towed from Montreal to a Turkish scrap yard when the tow line broke in heavy weather. The ship drifted to shore, and began to break up. The owner paid salvors to remove pollutants, until it ran out of money, then the federal government took over.
The province eventually paid $14 million to remove the ship, with the final cost being several million dollars more than the estimates due to the presence of additional contaminants, including 800 liters of oil from the engine room.
The SOPF’s mandate does not traditionally include wreck removal, however the payment of the claim for the disposal of the Farley Mowat sets precedence for the province to claim cleanup costs related to the removal of the M/V Miner because doing so prevented future pollution.
Under the Oceans Protection Plan, the federal government has made funds available to deal with derelict and abandoned vessels. Including funds to CleanTech Renewables Ltd. of Sydney, to develop techniques to recycle fiberglass boats; $41,000 to the Eastern Nova Scotia Marine Stewardship Society for education in the fishing industry; and, Nova Scotia Lands was given $105,000 for an assessment of 30 vessels.
No Nova Scotia vessel removals have been funded to date.
Halterm announced the purchase of a super post-Panamax crane with an option on a second for delivery in June 2020. Additional terminal equipment was also purchased. The new equipment will help the terminal make use of the new longer pier.
The Yantain Express tied up in Freeport, Bahamas, and was inspected and it was found that 460 containers are likely damaged, and 198 are a total loss. Costs are not yet known.
The Captain Jim, the workboat that sunk off McNabs lsland with the loss of deckhand Max Hinch, was raised by the Transportation Safety Board.
The ex-CCGS Matthew has finally been sold, and renamed the Miss M. J. The new owner is a numbered company in Newfoundland and Labrador and paid $279,000 for the ship. It’s currently listed for sale with a ship broker for US$1.8 million.
