The costs of abandoned vessels and their removal

It has been half a year since this page featured the removal of the Samala, an abandoned vessel grounded just outside the Outer Cove Marina. Now the Coral Reef Management Office is overseeing the removal of another vessel, the Nago 15, which ran aground outside Tanapag lagoon in May 1997. This Equador-flagged fishing boat was the last vessel to go aground out of a trio of sister ships, all owned by the same Japanese fishing firm.

The first, the Nago 16, sank in January 1997 while sailing with the Nago 15 to Guam from Tokyo. It was short on fuel, floundered off Pagan, and sank on the reef. The Nago 15 also had trouble on the journey. Its transmission failed, but unlike Nago 16, stayed afloat and the Nago 11 was called from Saipan to tow its sister ship safely to port.

The boat owners were required to use the boats’ $10,000 bond to pay for an assessment of the reef damage caused by the Nago 16 sinking. No significant damage was found so CNMI agencies gave the owner clearance for the Nago 15 and 11 to leave Saipan’s port and continue their journey. However, no action was taken by the owners and the Nago 15 and 11 remained tied together and docked outside DPW beach.

The neglected vessels fell into further disrepair and in April 1997 the Nago 11 was reported sunk, creating an oil spill. The Nago 15 was untied from the wreck of the Nago 11, and towed 50 feet away where it was anchored near the turning basin at Charlie Dock. Nago 11 was pulled out onto the seaplane ramp.

Another clearance letter was sent by the Department of Lands and Natural Resources to the local agent of the boats in August 1997 emphasizing their concern that the vessels were still on Saipan in the midst of typhoon season. The letter was ignored and Typhoon Winnie hit less than a week later, washing the Nago 15 into shallow water west of Lower Base where it still lies grounded.

The two boats were deemed legally abandoned in June 1998 and put up for sale. However, there were no buyers. The Nago 15 continued to sit within a vast sea grass bed and adjacent to some large coral heads, both valuable marine resources. Its close proximity to these important benthic habitats led NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration to list the Nago 15 as a priority vessel for removal.

NOAA’s and local scientists’ concern that the boat would continue to scour the sea grass bed during storm events proved well founded. In 2004 she was pushed another 50 feet, as a result of Typhoons Chaba and Ting Ting. This led the government agencies this year to approve the allocation of funding from the CNMI Coral Reef Initiative grant and emergency funding from the US Congress for the Nago 15 removal that is currently underway.

Surely there are better ways for the CNMI to spend its grant funding rather than using it to clean up wreckage from abandoned vessels. So what are we doing to cure the disease (derelict and abandoned vessels) rather than continue to bandage the ailment (removing grounded vessels)? Well, CRM, DLNR, DFW, DPS, and the Attorney General’s Office have been brainstorming. They have tossed around some ideas for a viable solution to the problem. These include the creation and implementation of new boating and marina safety policies and further training for our boat inspectors.

This is a good start. However, without community understanding of the costs and adverse impacts that these vessels have on the CNMI economy and our living marine resources, compliance with any new policies will be virtually unattainable and vessel groundings will continue to occur. Therefore, CRM will host a series of public forums to discuss the potential actions already considered and seek other solutions from within the community.

Potential actions include using a sliding scale for annual boat licensing fees, where boats in poor repair would be charged a higher renewal fee than well maintained boats, to encourage responsible ownership. Another would be to have owners demonstrate their boat’s seaworthiness by sailing it a specified distance under its own power as part of the annual licensing inspection. A portion of the collected license fee would be used to cover the inspection and enforcement costs of DPS boating safety officers. The agencies are also considering requiring insurance for CNMI-flagged vessels using a slip or moorage, requiring foreign-flagged vessels to wait one year before applying for CNMI licensure, and creating a Vessel Emergency Response Fund. Once a Fund is established, a portion of the boat license fee would be used to sustain it. The Fund would pay for removal of vessels at risk before they sink or ground. Vessel owners would then be charged the incurred costs to replenish the fund.

In order to enhance local knowledge about boat maintenance, a five-day U.S. Coast Guard Compliant Vessel Inspection Training is going to be offered next year for DPS boating safety, CRM, DEQ, and DFW enforcement staff. Officers will learn to identify boats at risk, know when to require their repair or removal, and how to effectively encourage boat maintenance on the part of owners. After training, officers will be more confident and better equipped to enforce marina and boating safety policies.

Together, these actions, with the support of the community, may be the beginning of the end of derelict and abandoned vessels in the CNMI. Hmm, now what to do with all that funding?