Ferry companies irresponsible, says DOC

Ferry companies have acted irresponsibly in damaging the Marlborough Sounds with ferry wake and must be strictly controlled, says the Department of Conservation.

DOC is backing Marlborough District Council's proposed restrictions on ferries in the Sounds at an Environment Court hearing in Blenheim.

The court is hearing a challenge from Toll and Strait Shipping to the rules, which would require ships over 500 gross metric tonnes wanting to travel at more than 15 knots to apply for resource consent.

DOC Sounds area manager Roy Grose told the hearing of the attitude of shipping companies during the fast ferry debate of the 1990s, the Marlborough Express reported yesterday.

"They sat back and did nothing to address the obvious damage their vessels were inflicting on the Sounds and the people who live there."

Mr Grose said that with ferries only getting bigger, future ships could cause waves as damaging as fast ferries if they were allowed to operate unhindered.

He played a video documenting the effects of fast ferries, which lawyers for Toll and Strait Shipping sought to have disallowed on the grounds it was irrelevant to the current debate.

The video showed marine life, including kina, blue mussels and starfish washed up on Sounds beaches, and severe beach erosion caused by the fast ferries.

Earlier, DOC's reasons for supporting the council's proposed "Variation 3" regulations were spelled out by lawyer Camilla Owen.

She said although parts of the Marlborough Sounds were now undoubtedly a ferry route, that did not mean they were not worthy of preservation.

Ms Owen said if Toll was allowed to successfully appeal Variation 3, the Marlborough Sounds would not be adequately protected from damage-causing ferry wake, the newspaper reported.

- NZPA