(MW / 15-04-10)  The Chinese ship that run aground the Great Barrier last week leaking oil has caused “important damages” in the aquatic organisms, according to the Authorities of this Marine Park.

Russel Reichelt, president of this entity explained that the anti fouling paint of the hull continues damaging the corals of the protected area, despite the fact that the ship was refloated last night after the Australian rescue services pumped the oil to lighten the ship.

“The small paint chips that remained stuck to the reef are killing the surrounding corals or affecting them very much and they will soon die” explained Reichelt for the ABC radio. Scientists consider that we will have to wait some weeks to know exactly the damages suffered by the coral reef and the marine richness around it, but, according to a preliminary study there are paint ships in an area one km. long.

According to Reichelt, the damage not only was caused when the ship run aground on April 3rd, but also during the whole week, when the sea dragged the ship for the 1 km damaged area.

The leader of the Queensland Government, Anna Bligh, announced that she will present a new legislation to the Parliament to increase the fines to ships causing oil slicks to 10 million dollars of the country, about 9.2 million American dollars.

The salvage teams finished last night a three working days to transfer to a floating container with a capacity of 1,500 tones part of the Shen Neng oil. The ship, 230 meters long, had dumped about three tones of oil to the ocean.

Once the ship has been refloated, they tugged it to a berth close to the tourist Great Keppel Island, 38 nautical miles (about 70 km.) far from the place of the accident.

The Chinese ship Shen Neng 1 run aground with 65,000 tones of coal and 975 tones of oil, of which about four tones dumped that have already been dissolve by chemical sprinklers.

The Australian Federal Police has arrested to crew members of the cargo boat: the captain and the head guard. The captain, a Chinese citizen aged 47, has been charged with the responsibility that the ship has caused damages in the marine reserve, a sentence that could be over 55,000 dollars. The cargo boat was going at full speed and completely loaded through a banned rout when it run aground in Douglas Shoal, in the South ending of the protected reef, which covers 346,000 square km. of the northeast coast.

Another crew member, a Chinese man 44 years old, has been the person in charge of the ship when it causes the damage to the Great Barrier, a sentence punishable with tree years in prison and a fine of 220,000 dollars.

The arrests have been done alter the joint investigation carried out by the Australian police, the people responsible for the marine reserve and the Australian Maritime Authority. Those investigations show that the Chinese ship could not turn in one of the places it was intended to do it.