PAGo PAGO – 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.

Tri Marine says its fishing vessel Captain Vincent Gann was docking at Pago Pago to deliver a full load of tuna for canning in American Samoa.

During the final phase of the docking manoeuvre the vessel suffered an electrical failure in its throttle controls which resulted in a collision with other vessels at the dock.

Tri Marine says the collision damaged the bulbous bow of the vessel and some fuel stowed in the vessel’s forepeak tank was released into the harbour.

The hull of the seiner was breached near the front of the vessel during the crash, and at least 35 barrels of the fuel oil “that had been illegally stored in the bulbous bow flowed out of a large gash directly into the water”, stated the complaint from the US government.

The fuel was promptly cleaned up by the vessel’s crew and port engineers under the supervision of the US Coast Guard who happened to be in port.

The Coast Guard then investigated the spill and “reportable serious marine incident and identified several violations of spill prevention regulations”.

The coast guard found that fuel oil was stored in the bulbous bow of the vessel, which is forward of the collision bulkhead the document states.

“Such conduct is expressly forbidden under longstanding coast guard spill prevention regulations.”

In the complaint, brought by the authority of the US attorney general, acting at the request of the US Coast Guard, Tri Marine was accused of “illegal storage of fuel oil”.

“No oil would have spilled into Pago Pago Harbor during the crash but for the illegal storage of fuel oil in the prohibited forward location,” states the US government in the complaint.

Tri Marine said it “cooperated with the US Coast Guard and Department of Justice but did not admit any liability as part of the settlement”.

Tri Marine has also agreed to a range of other measures, which the US government said will prevent the “alleged illegal fuel oil loading, storage, and transfer practices” discovered on Captain Vincent Gann, which would not be repeated on that vessel or any other American Samoa-based fishing vessels managed by the company.

As part of the settlement with the Department of Justice, Tri Marine Fishing Management, the company’s vessel operating arm, agreed to conduct a top to bottom review of all vessels it manages to ensure compliance with coast guard regulations.

“Tri Marine is committed to leading the industry in not only meeting the letter of the law, but exceeding it in many areas of our business,” said Renato Curto, president of Tri Marine Fishing Management. “Humans make mistakes despite these best intentions. We are grateful that the release of oil was cleaned up quickly.”

The Coast Guard said Tri Marine “stored extra fuel in the bulbous bow for profit-driven motives – to allow the vessel to remain at sea longer to increase the ship’s range and the amount of fish caught on each voyage”.

As a result of this incident, it was discovered that a crew member on Captain Vincent Gann did not follow company policy and had improperly transferred fuel to that space, said Tri Marine.

The policy of Tri Marine Fishing Management is in keeping with the coast guard regulations that prohibit carrying fuel in compartments forward of the collision bulkhead, said Tri Marine, in the statement.

- PNC sources