NSW Maritime steps up hunt for missing ship containers
The number of shipping containers lost off the APL England this week is now confirmed at 50NSW Maritime has confirmed it is now on the hunt for 50 shipping containers that have gone missing from a ship caught in high seas off the state’s coast this week.
The count of containers lost from the Singapore-flagged APL England has increased by 10 today as some of the containers and their contents continue to wash up on beaches between Woollongong and Port Stephens.
“We have almost 100 people working on the response, with about 80 out on the ground manually removing what is washing up,” NSW Maritime acting executive director Alex Barrell said.
“A focus today has been Cronulla and surrounding beaches, Tamarama, Maroubra, Little Bay, Newcastle and Port Stephens.”.
Of the containers to go missing, 24 are empty and 26 contain “a variety of goods”.
NSW Maritime has dedicated three tug boats to the clean-up effort, using them to tow any floating containers found back to Broken bay for removal and disposal.
Five containers that washed ashore at Birdie Beach have been brought ashore.
NSW maritime said four containers offshore near Norah Head were in the final stages of being removed from the water after they were towed at very low speed overnight.
One container was lost during the tow and is now being searched for.
Five more containers have washed ashore south of Bateau Bay.
A tug from Botany is salvaging a 40-foot shipping container located off Port Kembla. It is due to arrive in Broken Bay later this afternoon.
“The owners of the APL England and its insurers are cooperating with what is needed in terms of resources to manage this incident,” Barrell said.
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