The owners of a fishing vessel which caused an oil spill in American Samoa last year have been fined just over one million US dollars, but still deny any wrongdoing.
Transcript
The owners of a fishing vessel which caused an oil spill in American Samoa last year have been fined just over one million US dollars, but still deny any wrongdoing.
Tri Marine Management, Tri-Marine Fishing Management, and Cape Mendocino Fishing have agreed with the United States Justice Department to pay the civil penalty and to perform fleet-wide inspections.
The spill occurred in Pago Pago harbour when a purse seiner collided with two other vessels while trying to dock.
Our correspondent, Fili Sagapolutele, told Jamie Tahana the owners deny wrongdoing, but have agreed to the penalty because it's the best way to litigate.
FILI SAGAPOLUTELE: Well the oil spill itself was a little bit concerning to local agencies and especially residents in the Pago Pago area and it was an issue that local residents wanted to make sure that the government gets down to and finds out exactly what happened. And, apparently what happened was that after this vessel returned to Pago Pago harbour and it struck two fishing vessels that were mooring in the harbour as the vessel was trying to maneuver around, and according to the federal government, at least 35 [inaudible] of marine fuel flowed out of the bow of the boat into the water.
JAMIE TAHANA: Was it a particularly big oil spill? Did it do any damage or anything?
FS: There wasn't any damage, the reason is perhaps because the owners of the vessel, which is three separate companies and three of them are based here in American Samoa were able to quickly conduct a clean up, so that was one of the important issues and the Coastguard was already in port handling some other issues because there were a couple of other vessels that were in port at the same time.
JT: OK but the owners have been fined anyway?
FS: Yes. According to the US government it's civil penalties - which is US$1.05 million, and the owners of the vessel are also to perform fleet-wide inspection and other corrective measures to resolve claims stemming from this oil spill. However, despite this under the decree filed in court the company is not admitting any wrongdoing.
JT: What do they mean by a 'fleet-wide inspection' thing. Are there fears that other vessels may be sub-par or something?
FS: The vessel that was involved in this incident is one of the ten purse seiner vessels that is managed by Tri Marine Fishing Management - they're all based in American Samoa so every single vessel besides the captain all have to go through this entire inspection in that they're also supposed to conduct a top-to-bottom review to ensure compliance with Coastguard regulations. Remember American Samoa is one of the only ports in the South Pacific that is governed by very strict US regulations that not only falls under the Coastguard, but also you have the US Environmental Protection Agency that's involved.
JT: OK but Tri Marine not accepting any kind of wrongdoing so is this that they've accepted this civil suit because it's the best option available to them? They faced bigger fines or something?
FS: According to the decree, although they're not admitting any wrongdoing, it's that this is the best way to litigate this issue to ensure that they conduct their own full inspection.
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