SIUMU – Under clear skies Tuesday, shortly after sunrise in the beachside fishing village of Siumu, Samoa, a dozen men and children prepared their small boats for a day at sea. But underwater, a mile off the coast, a sunken New Zealand naval vessel is forcing them to travel farther away to fish than before, and worrying many in the area about the future.
The village, festooned with Samoan and British flags, is bustling with preparations to host King Charles III and Queen Camilla when the royals arrive on Wednesday for a biennial meeting of leaders from 56 Commonwealth countries. It is the first time a Pacific Island nation has hosted the event.
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But Siumu was already busy. New Zealand and Samoan officials have been working for weeks along miles of nearby coastline to monitor and deal with environmental damage caused by the sinking of the HMNZS Manawanui, which ran aground on the reef, caught fire and sank earlier this month.
The 75 people on board the specialist dive and hydrographic vessel — one of nine ships in New Zealand's navy — were all evacuated safely.
Early fears of a catastrophic fuel spill were later quashed by officials who said oil had not gushed from the ship as it sank. But many who live in Siumu and surrounding villages are worried that damage to the reef from the wreck threatens their longer-term survival.
“I don’t know when it’s going to be good again and to (go) back to the normal,” said Netina Malae, who has temporarily closed her small resort at nearby Tafitoala. The colorful fales, or huts, lining the beach sit empty.
Recovery efforts on the reef have focused on removing three large shipping containers left after the sinking, one of them laden with food. New Zealand's military hoped to float the final one — which is empty and damaged — to shore on Tuesday, although winds and tides threatened their efforts.
Meanwhile, fishers who once spent their days where the boat foundered face longer and more expensive trips, they told The Associated Press.
“We doubled the amount of petrol to go far out to get fish,” said Faalogo Afereti Taliulu, citing advice from Samoa’s government that seafood from around the sunken ship should not be eaten. “That’s why that’s our concern. It’s financially affecting us.”
Taliulu and others from the village on Upolu, the largest island of Samoa, fish mostly for tuna. It is their biggest industry and a family affair.
His cousin, Taula Fagatuai, said currents and tides meant the fishers were unsure if seafood they were catching outside the exclusion area was safe to eat. Just what's happening to the fragile marine ecosystem around the vessel, its anchor chain and shipping containers is not yet clear.
“That boat is going to be ruining our reef,” Fagatuai said.
Some in Siumu and surrounding villages are urging New Zealand’s government to pay compensation for their lost earnings, but a swift resolution is unlikely. The cause of the ship’s sinking is unknown and a court of inquiry has been established to investigate the episode.
How much fuel is seeping from the vessel is another contested matter. New Zealand’s Defense Minister Judith Collins said last week that a residual “trickle” of diesel from the ship was evaporating quickly from the ocean's surface. She said the amount of fuel that had spilled into the ocean was less than what had been reported by Samoan officials and that much of what the ship was carrying burned out in the fire.
Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa assured reporters last week that there was “no evidence of any leaks" from the vessel's main tanks.
But it's unclear how much diesel flowed from the ship as it sank, Commodore Andrew Brown, the senior national representative for the New Zealand’s military in Samoa, told the AP on Tuesday. Retrieving the remaining fuel from the sunken vessel was a priority, he said.
There are not yet plans to raise the vessel from its resting place.
Officials are monitoring the coastline, the diesel sheen on the water surface and its movement in the currents, Brown said.
Officials from both countries have said there is no visible damage to Samoa's beaches or wildlife. But some in the surrounding villages, who say they have seen oil in the water coating people or fish, are not reassured.
“My children went to the spot where they surf. And when they came back they said that everywhere there is oil,” Malae said. “And then I touched their bodies -- slippery with the oil. So I’m sure that this oil was there.”
The disaster unfolded as Samoa prepared to host the British royals — who will stay at a resort near Siumu's fishing village — and other world leaders at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Meetings among civil society leaders have already begun, with an official opening ceremony scheduled for Friday.
But uncertainty over the sunken ship has hurt tourism during the event. Malae usually takes visitors out to sea on fishing or surfing trips or to spot turtles. Now, she said, “it's all stopped.”
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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.