Harbourmaster team refloating sunken boat at Tanners Point. Photo: Supplied / Bay of Plenty Regional Council
More extreme weather events and chronic neglect are literally sinking ships in Tauranga Harbour and deputy harbourmaster Daniel Rapson says the problem seems to be getting worse.
In the financial years of 2023 and 2024, the harbourmaster team recovered around one sunken vessel every three months (eight total over the two years). This financial year just since July, it has already had to recover four vessels.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council said this was not just a regional issue, but that abandoned boats were becoming a national concern.
Rapson said it was not just one thing that had led to the crisis.
"The boats are getting to the end of their life, it's the weather we are getting - we've had some fairly serious rain in the last couple of months, possibly the cost of living - people might just not be able to keep the boats going - so it's a whole range of things and we are just starting to see the results of that."
Sunken boat recently recovered from the southern side of the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. Photo: Supplied / Bay of Plenty Regional Council
A recent vessel the harbourmaster team salvaged, sunk at anchor after filling with rainwater.
"The severe weather and the heavy rainfall we've been having recently is adding to it, where if there are leaks in the deck, or holes in the deck, the water just comes straight in and they don't have things like bulge pumps, or they aren't checking them regularly, and they start to take on water," he said.
Many of the vessels now causing problems were built during the boating boom of the 1960s and '70s and now decades later they were reaching the end of their usable life.
Rapson said some owners were selling boats off cheap, for as low as a dollar, but the new owners had not invested much up front so had little motivation to take care of the vessel.
"When we are involved and we are having these issues, it's when there is something fundamentally wrong with the boat - often they are half full of water, maybe sunk, listing to one side, holes in the deck," he said
Derelict boat which sunk in Tauranga harbour. Photo: Supplied / Bay of Plenty Regional Council
The Bay of Plenty harbourmaster team managed 490 moorings across the region and annual inspections by the regional council's marine biosecurity dive team had revealed that around 40 percent of vessels moored in Tauranga Harbour were showing signs of neglect, with no recent hull maintenance.
Rapson said it was much cheaper to deal with a vessel which was still floating than to have to salvage it.
The Maritime Transport Act 1994 gave the harbourmaster the ability to recover costs from boat owners.
The regional council said as the number of derelict vessels continued to rise, the harbourmaster team were committed to identifying responsible parties and pursuing all available avenues to recover costs.
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