Crew in New Zealand oil spill ‘must not be made scapegoats’

Cargo ship ‘Rena’ is shown grounded after it ploughed into a reef last October 5, releasing an oil slick that killed thousands of sea birds and fouled beaches in the North Island's pristine Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A Philippine sailors’ support group said Friday the owners of a ship that caused New Zealand’s biggest sea pollution should share the blame for the disaster that led to two Filipino seamen being jailed.

The captain and second officer of the Liberian-flagged Rena were jailed Friday for seven months over the October 2011 accident that released an oil slick, killing thousands of sea birds and fouling beaches in the Bay of Plenty.

Investigators should look into the possibility the ship owners, Greece-based Costamare Shipping Company, had ordered the captain to alter course to save fuel, said Edwin de la Cruz, president of the Manila advocacy group International Seafarers’ Action Centre.

“The captain should not be made a scapegoat because he could not have acted without orders,” de la Cruz told Agence France-Presse.

“The act of the captain is the act of shipowners.”

Captain Mauro Balomaga and navigation officer Leonil Relon pleaded guilty in February to a range of charges including attempting to pervert the course of justice by altering navigation records after the vessel ploughed into a reef.

De la Cruz also called for justice for the rest of the Rena’s Filipino crew.

“They lost their jobs and suffered from trauma because no one wanted to rescue them,” he said.

De la Cruz said up to 380,000 Filipino sailors are aboard the world’s merchant marine fleet at any one time, and have been the single largest nationality for the past 25 years.