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More maritime accidents as sea turns treacherous
Maritime authorities have reported a rise in the number of accidents in Indonesian waters and have taken steps to mitigate the incidents
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aritime authorities have reported a rise in the number of accidents in Indonesian waters and have taken steps to mitigate the incidents.
On Wednesday, one cargo ship flying the flag of Hong Kong found itself stranded near the waters off Riau before being assisted by the Navy's Western Fleet (Armabar) and towed to nearby Sambu Island.
The cargo ship, MV Ocean Carrier, was transporting iron ore and was headed to Yang Jian, China, from Fujairah, Iran.
Chief of Batam Naval Base Col. Eko Suyatno said that the cargo ship had found itself stranded after trying to avoid the busy traffic between Indonesia to Singapore.
'The cargo ship was stranded in the Batu Berhenti area,' Eko said.
The ship suffered no serious damage when two warships, the KRI Surik and the KRI Siwar, arrived to start the rescue effort.
The Malacca Strait is a busy maritime route for ships, cargo vessels and tankers, and collisions sometimes take place.
In December last year, a Danish-cargo ship, MT Thorco Cloud, sank off the coast of Batam after it collided with a tanker.
Based on data from the Maritime Security Board (Bakamla), in January 2016 alone, there were 29 maritime accidents, including eight sinking cases, five cases of stranded ships and three cases of
leaking ships.
The latest incident took place on Jan. 26 when a ship transporting 71 domestic tourists sank off Bokori Island, Southeast Sulawesi, after colliding with a rock and taking on water. No casualties were reported.
Two days after the incident, a fishing boat, the KM Hikmah Rizki, sank in the waters off east Aceh due to high seas. One fisherman was reported missing.
The causes of maritime accidents range from bad weather to overloaded and poorly maintained vessels.
It is often the case that boats capsize and sink because they are overcrowded.
Armabar said maritime accidents were mostly due to bad weather and overcapacity.
'However, we rarely see boats crash into one another because all ships have their own paths,'
Zainuddin said.
He said that the waters near the South China Sea could be quite treacherous, especially during the monsoon season.
'The areas near the South China Sea are quite dangerous with more than 2-meter high waves,'
he said.
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