Bulk carrier re-floated after running aground in Prince Rupert Harbour

Location of the Amakusa Island
at Prince Rupert Harbour

The high tide of early Tuesday morning provided relief for a Japanese bulk carrier which ran aground in Prince Rupert's outer harbour late Monday evening.

In a news release provided earlier today, Prince Rupert Port Authority officials released details on the incident  involving the 228 metre bulk carrier Amakusa Island, which ran aground 15 kilometres from Ridley Island.

The incident took place shortly after 10 PM Monday, as the vessel was shifting its position from berth at Ridley Terminals, to its assigned anchorage position.

At that time, both the Canadian Coast Guard Marine Communications and Traffic Service and the Port Security Operations Centre worked to assess the incident.

With the assistance of tugs from SMIT Marine Canada, the vessel was freed from its position around 2:30 Tuesday morning, proceeding to its anchorage location under its own power.

It was escorted to its anchorage by the two tugs and the Port Authority harbour patrol vessel.

Archive Photo from MarineTraffic.com website

The Amakusa Island measures 228 metres by 36.5 and was built in 2005, more background on the bulk carrier can be found here.

The vessel arrived at Prince Rupert Harbour after transit from Vancouver's Roberts Bank Coal Terminal.

While the Amakusa Island was reported as listing visibly at the time of the incident, no injuries or environmental contamination was reported or observed.

The Prince Rupert Port Authority continues to monitor the situation.

According to the most recent vessel information listings for the Port of Prince Rupert, the Amakusa Island is not expected to sail from Prince Rupert until July 22nd.

Update:   Tuesday Morning, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada advised that they were deploying a team to Prince Rupert to assess the grounding of the Amakusa Island.