The vast majority of the items in the 109 cargo containers that fell off a ship near Victoria three years ago are still in marine ecosystems or continue to wash up along B.C.'s shores, federal officials said Wednesday, July 31.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) issued two safety concerns as it released the findings of its investigation into the containers plunging off the ZIM Kingston into B.C. waters, and the five-day-long fire aboard the vessel that followed.
"This type of accident is not just a maritime accident, the effects are far reaching and long lasting," said Kathy Fox, the Transportation Safety Board's chair said during a Wednesday news conference in Vancouver. "The consequences of such accidents threaten marine ecosystems and endanger vessels and their crews, as well as the health and safety of both Canadians and those beyond our borders."
Containers lost at sea are a hazard when they remain floating and they pose a risk to marine environments when they drift to shore or sink and break apart, Fox added. Despite the vessel's operator taking responsibility for initial cleanup efforts, beach cleans conducted this year in B.C. continue to find contents likely from the ZIM Kingston containers, Fox said.
"The freshness of the debris suggests the containers continue to release their contents," she said.
An estimated 1,490 tonnes of cargo was lost overboard and only around 48 tonnes were recovered in the initial cleanup efforts, TSB's investigation found.
The ZIM Kingston left South Korea with nearly 2,000 containers holding more than 30,000 tonnes of the cargo – including consumer products and dangerous materials – and the cargo ship arrived at La Perouse Bank off Vancouver Island on Oct. 21, 2021. The vessel was held there after being told no anchorages were available.
The 109 containers flew off the ship after it experienced a kind of rocking from side to side known as parametric rolling, which officials said can only occur to specific kinds of vessels under certain wave conditions. The weather conditions at the time of the incident were not extreme for a vessel of the ZIM Kingston's size, TSB officials said.
A fire then broke out in a container holding dangerous goods aboard the vessel around 36 hours after the containers fell into the ocean.
The investigation found the response to the five-day fire followed industry standards and was conducted efficiently, but TSB officials said that was made possible by several fortunate circumstances.
The ZIM Kingston's course going through American waters meant it had to comply with U.S. requirements to have a marine-salvage-and-response contractor in place in the event of an emergency. That contractor was able to quickly recruit two foreign firefighting vessels which just happened to be in Victoria at the time.
“It is important not to mistake this luck for emergency preparedness. The next time, we may not be as lucky” Fox said.
The Transportation Safety Board is an independent federal agency that investigates marine, air, rail and pipeline incidents. Its two safety concerns deal with the absence of comprehensive guidance that would deter parametric rolling, along with Canada's preparedness for marine emergencies.
The safety board's chair said the feds are creating a national system for responding to marine pollution events, which is set to come into effect in the next few years. She added that Transport Canada is also developing a requirement for vessel operators to have emergency response arrangements in place, but said that won't be ready until 2028.
“The board is concerned there are gaps in Canada’s preparedness for marine emergencies that exceed the response capacity of a vessel’s crew – posing a risk to vessels, the environment and the health and safety of the general public,” Fox said.
The federal government said it's carefully reviewing the TSB's ZIM Kingston investigation and pointed to Canada Shipping Act changes announced last year that "further strengthen the foundation of marine incident management, including enabling early action to prevent an emergency from happening or getting worse."
"It is important for the federal government to have effective tools to ensure rapid, effective response to marine incidents and prevent them from becoming worse," Transport Canada spokesperson Sau Sau Liu said in a statement to Black Press Media.
The TSB investigation determined the risk of parametric rolling could’ve been identified with guidance material that’s generally available to industry, but such documents weren’t on board the ZIM Kingston at the time of the incident. However, those existing materials don't provide marine industry officials adequate guidance on how to manage those risks, the TSB officials said, adding that could contribute to more incidents of containers being lost.
“It’s not a matter of if, but when a similar incident will occur, and the question is, will Canada be prepared for it,” Fox said.
