Cargo ship runs aground, no oil spill, bureau says

• By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

A Belize-registered cargo ship ran aground off the southeast coast yesterday morning, the Maritime and Port Bureau said.

All 16 crew members aboard are safe, and neither hull damage nor an oil spill was found, it said.

The Uniprofit was stranded offshore near Taitung County’s Fugang Fishing Harbor after the ship’s steering system malfunctioned, the bureau said in a statement.

Photo: CNA

Of 16 crew on board, 11 are from China and five from Indonesia, it said.

The ship, which carries mainly general goods and petrochemical products, has 149 twenty-foot-equivalent units and 399.5 tonnes of oil on board, the bureau said.

It departed from China’s Yantai Port on Thursday and was headed to Indonesia’s Sulawesi Tengah Province, it said.

The bureau convened an emergency meeting at 11:30am yesterday after receiving the message that the Uniprofit lost power, adding that it immediately contacted the ship’s owner, as well as its protection and indemnity insurance firm, and asked them to tow the ship as soon as possible in accordance with the Commercial Port Act (商港法).

The ship’s captain was asked to close the valve of the oil tank, it said.

The Ocean Conservation Department is to prepare for oil pollution treatment, while the Taitung County Government is to ensure that crew members would be tested for COVID-19 if they disembark the ship, the bureau said.

The Coast Guard Administration’s eastern branch said that Taitung does not have a large tug, adding that the ship’s owner is trying to find ways to tow the ship when the tide rises.

Personnel have prepared oil spill containment booms, oil sorbent and other necessary equipment in case the oil aboard spills into the ocean, administration officials said.

Taitung Public Health Bureau Director Huang Ming-en (黃明恩) said the crew members would be tested and quarantined in accordance with disease prevention regulations if the owner of the ship allows them to disembark.