A FAULTY switch and instruction manuals written entirely in Japanese have been blamed in court for why a ship owned by conservation group Sea Shepherd dropped up to 500 litres of diesel into the Trinity Inlet.
The environmental organisation, whose Australian arm is chaired by former politician Bob Brown, yesterday pleaded guilty to the marine pollution offence in the Cairns Magistrates Court.
Defence barrister Tracy Fantin admitted the irony of the charge given Sea Shepherd's charter to protect and preserve marine life around the world.
She said the spill, which took place while the ship was moored alongside a wharf at the Cairns Port on October 13, 2012, happened after a crew member named Gabor Nosty failed to manually flick the "low level" switch during a fuel transfer, despite being aware the switch was faulty.
The court heard Sea Shepherd Australia had only bought the boat, named New Atlantis, from Japan a week earlier and had yet to translate signage and manuals or repair the switch.
According to court documents, crew members had been given basic handover information but the chief engineer had to work out the ship's systems "by his own devices" due to instruction manuals and other materials all being in Japanese.
