A STRICKEN bulk carrier adrift off the far north Queensland coast has been secured to a tug.

The carrier ID Integrity is in open water and at her latest rate of drifting, is at least 24 hours from the Great Barrier Reef, owners ID Wallem Shipmanagement say.

The tug PT Kotor was attached to the ship on Sunday and two more tugs were due to arrive around 3pm (AEST) to tow the vessel to Townsville within the next two days.

The company says there's no danger to the environment from the ship, which lost power on Friday night.

But green groups say the incident is worrying, given a possible ten-fold increase in shipping movements through the reef by 2020.

WWF spokesman Richard Leck called for an objective study to determine the carrying capacity of the reef.

"We have real concerns that we're just playing Russian roulette with the Great Barrier Reef,'' Mr Leck said.

"Sooner or later we're going to have a catastrophic incident.''

Premier Campbell Newman says he's glad the situation has been brought under control by the federal Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

He says shipping should be constantly improved as technology changes, but he doesn't buy WWF's argument.

"The green groups' theory is that the more ships that you have going around then the more accidents you have,'' he said.

"If that was the case then people would be involved in far more plane crashes today than we saw 20 years ago, and clearly that's not the case.

"Certainly we'd be having a lot more traffic accidents and that's not happening either.''

UNESCO is due to report this month on the threats of development to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

