“The tide was three hours away but it did seem to move about. It is about 200m towards the river, from Carters Beach village. In front of the golf links.”
Buller District Mayor Jamie Cleine said Manahau had been anchored offshore for the past week and was not able to come in due to bad weather.
“At this stage, I have been advised there have been no injuries to anybody and no environmental concerns at this time.”
He said tugs from around New Zealand would likely be needed to refloat it.
Cleine said the weather had been “horrific” during the past few nights.
“We have had a really rough week or so of weather and overnight was squally thunderstorms and winds.”
In a statement from the Maritime Union of New Zealand, national secretary Carl Findlay said the grounding of Manahau “raises major questions”.
The Manahau barge has run aground on Carters Beach in Westport. Photo / Marlene Coleman Facebook
“Concerns had been previously raised by New Zealand seafarers about the foreign crew and flag of the barge,” he said.
He said the cause of the grounding has yet to be confirmed, but the difficult local conditions at Westport including recent poor weather would be obvious issues to consider.
Findlay said the Manahau did not have a New Zealand crew and the flag state was Niue.
“Vessels such as the Manahau operating in New Zealand’s unique and challenging maritime environment should be crewed by experienced New Zealand seafarers.”
The operators of the Manahau had benefitted from government funding for the vessel, he said, despite the ship not being New Zealand flagged nor crewed.
“In the last several years, we saw an upsurge in New Zealand-crewed coastal shipping, but this is now going backwards with the loss of coastal shipping services, or in this case, failing to provide jobs for skilled local crews,” he said.
“New Zealand needs to build its coastal shipping capacity, and that means New Zealand owned, operated, and crewed ships.”