Disaster at Nightingale – The Wreck of the MS Oliva at the World's Remotest Island: Lessons Learned for Resource Managers in Remote Areas

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Tristan da Cunha island group represents the second largest concentration of sea birds in the world. More than 65 percent of the world's endangered Northern Rockhopper penguin population is found here. Nightingale Island holds more than 100,000 pairs of Northern Rockhopper penguins, 20,000 pairs of albatrosses including the yellow nose albatross, and 2,000,000 pairs of Broadbill prions. The island is also home to the highly-endangered Tristan Bunting. Only 50 pairs remain in the world, all of which are found on Nightingale Island. On March 16, 2011 at 430am, the 75,300 ton Maltese freighter Oliva, en route from Santos, Brazil to China with a cargo of soybeans ran aground onto the rocks at Nightingale Island's northwestern corner. Less than 12 hours later, Oliva broke apart on the rocks and spilling more than 300,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil around Nightingale Island, resulting in the oiling of thousands of endangered Northern Rockhopper penguins. A desperate rescue and rehabilitation effort followed, led by SANCCOB (the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds). However, the extreme remoteness of Tristan da Cunha – 1,500 miles from Cape Town South Africa with no airport or landing strip -- proved to be an insurmountable challenge. An investigation report by the Maltese government released in late 2012 revealed the series of errors and procedure violations that led to the disaster. Global shipping has tripled since the 1970s and thousands of cargo ships like the Oliva traverse waters in close proximity to critically important habitat for many species. Cargo ships — bulk carriers, container ships and tankers — have a poor safety record and disasters like the Oliva as well as the Rena (New Zealand 2011), Treasure (South Africa 2000) and Selendang Ayu (Alaska, USA 2004), among many others have demonstrated that ordinary bulk carriers can cause serious environmental harm, especially in remote areas where response time and capacity are seriously limited. The Oliva incident has shed light on the unique challenges faced by resource managers in remote areas, especially as marine transportation continues to grow with increasing coverage of the globe. Climate change is now allowing marine transportation corridors to expand to areas adjacent to previously inaccessible, remote, wildlife-rich areas where there is limited capacity to respond during an oil spill emergency, making the lessons learned in Tristan da Cunha especially relevant.