Queensland authorities say they have identified the vessel that spilled up to 15 tonnes of oil off Cape Upstart in July 2015

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

An unnamed foreign ship faces prosecution over an oil spill on the Great Barrier Reef after a 12-month investigation by Queensland government agencies.

Maritime investigators claim they have identified the vessel that spilled up to 15 tonnes of oil in reef waters off Cape Upstart in July 2015, which washed up on mainland beaches and islands north of Townsville and triggered a response costing $1.5m.

It follows an investigation that the ports minister, Mark Bailey, described as painstaking, and involved identifying the offending ship from 17 vessels in the area 72 hours prior to the spill.

Authorities were first alerted by a fisherman who reported seeing a slick close to 1km long, which had dissipated by the time aerial searches were under way.

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“The challenge was then to track down the individual ships, many of which were on international voyages, check onboard records, interview crews and take oil samples for elimination testing against samples from the spill,” Bailey said.

“It was a difficult investigation as the ship believed to be responsible is foreign registered with a crew of foreign nationals.

“This is an extremely complex legal process involving both Australian and international maritime law and we don’t want to jeopardise the case by identifying the suspect vessel while the evidence is being fully considered.”

The commonwealth director of public prosecutions will now consider whether to charge the overseas-registered, foreign-crewed ship, whose operator could face state and federal fines of up to $17m.

Steven Miles, the minister for the environment and the Great Barrier Reef, said it took a multi-agency taskforce two weeks to remove the oil from island and mainland beaches between Palm Island and Hinchinbrook Island.

Two seabirds were killed from oil exposure but a juvenile flatback turtle was saved and released back into the ocean after six weeks.

“Luckily, there was only a small number of animals affected by the spill,” Miles said.

Bailey said the Palaszczuk government had vowed to “relentlessly pursue anyone wilfully or negligently polluting our coastal waters, especially the Great Barrier Reef marine park area and this investigation demonstrates our resolve”.

“We will ensure Queenslanders are not out of pocket for this incident and will seek full cost recovery through the Australian Maritime Safety Authority either out of the offending ship’s insurance or from a national plan fund set aside for these occurrences,” he said.