Shipping
Shipping accidents are also a pressing concern, as several commercial shipping routes pass through the Great Barrier Reef. The GBRMPA estimates that about 6000 vessels greater than 50 metres (164 ft) in length use the Great Barrier Reef as a route. From 1985-2001, there were 11 collisions and 20 groundings in Great Barrier Reef shipping route. The leading cause of shipping accidents in the Great Barrier Reef is human error.
Although the route through the Great Barrier Reef is not easy, reef pilots consider it safer than outside the reef in the event of mechanical failure, since a ship can sit safely while being repaired. 75% of all ships that use the Great Barrier Reef as a route use the inner route. On the outside, wind and swell will push a ship towards the reef and the water is deep right up to the reef so anchoring is impossible. Captain Cook in the Endeavour nearly came to grief that way, being utterly becalmed and pushed towards the reef by the swell. Right up to within 80 metres (262 ft) of the Great Barrier Reef, the water was so deep that no ground (to anchor against) could be felt with 220 metres (722 ft) of line. There have been over 1,600 known shipwrecks in the Great Barrier Reef region.
Waste and foreign species discharged in ballast water from ships (when purging procedures are not followed) are a biological hazard to the Great Barrier Reef. Tributyltin (TBT) compounds found in some antifouling paint on ship hulls leaches into seawater and is toxic to marine organisms and humans; efforts are underway to restrict its use.
In April 2010, the bulk coal carrier Shen Neng 1 ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef causing the largest grounding scar to date and creating an oil slick of heavy fuel oil 2 nautical miles (3.7 km; 2.3 mi) long.
Read more about this topic: Environmental Threats To The Great Barrier Reef
Famous quotes containing the word shipping:
“I need not tell you of the inadequacy of the American shipping marine on the Pacific Coast.... For this reason it seems to me that there is no subject to which Congress can better devote its attention in the coming session than the passage of a bill which shall encourage our merchant marine in such a way as to establish American lines directly between New York and the eastern ports and South American ports, and both our Pacific Coast ports and the Orient and the Philippines.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared with the shipping interests?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)