GERALDTON, Australia (8 Oct 2004) -- After an almost four hour delay, it took less than one minute for the illegal fishing vessel to sink - finally meeting its watery grave as a new artificial dive reef at approximately 2.15pm. The ship also rolled slightly as she went down and a clearance dive discovered this was the result of two of the 10 charges failing to detonate. Canadian explosives expert Roy Gabriel, who spent almost a month preparing the South Tomi, said it was a delicate process to coordinate all the charges and the failure of the charges, while not expected, was still a risk with the type of explosives he was using. "It started going to starboard slightly, a lot of the ships will, they'll either go to port or starboard a little bit," he said. "Normally as it starts to totally go under then it'll come right back again and park itself on the bottom." Clearance divers Ian Stiles and Geoff Paynter discovered the unexploded charges on the port side of the vessel and an explosives team moved in to remove them safely. Mr Gabriel said the sinking itself was delayed by a freighter coming into the Port and the extra time it took to position the ship correctly. "You have to keep using a GPS and moving the ship around until it's centred in there before you can anchor it," he said. The sinking marked the culmination of 17 months work by the Geraldton Community Artificial Reef Committee (GCARC), the City, Green Corps, the State and Federal Governments and GCARC chairman Trevor Beaver said it was a relief to see the ship finally go down. "When you have tourism in the region, for it to prosper you need something to get people there...it just puts a place on the map and so we hope that this vessel will put Geraldton on the map for divers," he said. Federal Fisheries Minister Senator Ian Macdonald was in Geraldton for the sinking and said scuttling of the South Tomi sent a clear message that illegal fishing wouldn't be tolerated in Australia. BUSTED: The South Tomi was first sighted fishing illegally in Australian waters for Patagonian toothfish in March, 2001. Australian SAS captured it off the coast of South Africa after an epic chase lasting 14 days, just 328km short of Cape Town. | | Scuttling of the South Tomi sends a clear message that illegal fishing will not be tolerated in Australia. "It is truly fitting that a vessel that once stole wealth from Australian waters will now add to it," he said. Member for O'Connor Wilson Tuckey said the event was a credit to the vision of the people of Geraldton. "Every time you create a new opportunity people from all over the world will come to dive these wrecks," he said. "The imagery of this vessel sinking today is an international image and that is – 'don't come messing in our waters'." City Mayor Vickie Petersen said it was excellent to see all the months of hard work pay off and the project completed. "It was great, we had a really good time out there...it was a great atmosphere, everybody was very relaxed," she said. Eleven year old Gregory Lee pressed the button that sent off the explosion after winning the right in a competition. It is estimated diving on the South Tomi will be permitted in about a week. SOURCE - Midwest Times |
