Repetitively Defective vessel DUE BACK to Oz

 The Balha One (ex Yangtze Fortune) is due to arrive in Darwin today. The ship was built in China as a container ship, the Sitc Fortune, but has had numerous name and ownership changes since:
1. ‎ Sitc Fortune (until 2008).
2.  Zaan Trader (until 2014).
3.  Wende (until 2016).
4.  He Shun No. 2 (until 2017).
5. Yangtze Fortune (until 2023) - after conversion from container to livestock ship
6. Fu Guo (until 2024).
7.  Balha One.

Yangtze Fortune traded out of Australia and NZ from 2018-2022. In July 2018 the ship had a high mortality voyage with cattle to China and she was subsequently found to have a serious design fault with inadequate drainage of the cattle decks.

In November 2020 she was delayed in Napier Port, NZ for several days after the Master advised that the ship's steering gear was defective.

In September 2022 a voyage from Portland to China was aborted after a crack was discovered in the hull.

Yangtze Fortune then languished at anchor off Portland for several months with unpaid crew. In December 2022 the Australian Federal Court declared the Yangtze Fortune abandoned by its Hong Kong owners and ordered that it be arrested by the Admiralty Marshall and sold to settle outstanding debts. The ship was sold for US$6 million (scrap value) and it sailed away.

The ship was then renamed the Fu Guo by its new owners before changing hands yet again and renamed Balha One. It is sailing to Darwin under the flag of convenience of Liberia. 

Sound familiar????

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: INDEPENDENT OBSERVER AND MORTALITY REPORTS FOR MV Yangtze Fortune 2018-2019

Report 4: May 2018; Fremantle to Oman; 18 days. Sheep; 0.30% mortality
Significant heat stress occurred from Day 5 for an unspecified duration. No mention in IO summary that there were issues with the ventilation and that the AMSA generator was required (in the scientific paper for this voyage). Twin lambs were born but euthanased due to expected high heat in feedlot. The description "heat stress" did not appear in the IO SUMMARY.
IO SUMMARY REPORT: see report
IO FOI DOCUMENTS: see document
VALE COMMENT: see document
RELEVANT SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE: VOYAGE A in attached document

Report 12: July 2018, MV Yangtze Fortune; Portland to Ningbo (China); 20 days (16 predicted and food for 19); high mortality voyage with 1.51% (33/2192)  cattle mortality. Main cause of death heat stress. Heat stress Day 5 to Day 20. Ship infrastructure poor: water and food troughs knocked off, water hoses of domestic use quality (!) so broke/split and no spares, drainage issues etc. AMSA required issues rectified on return."The animals had plenty of space and ventilation was good; there was simply no relief from hot and humid conditions" wrote the AAV (vet) in EOV Report.
IO SUMMARY REPORT: see report
FOI DOCUMENTS FOR THE VOYAGE: see documents
VALE COMMENT: The Department suspended Phoenix’s Approved Arrangement to China, and did not allow them to export until they changed their animal sourcing and plans. Rare move for the Dept indicating severity of the event.
MEDIA COMMENT: see live-sheep-export-row-hits-cattle-ship-that-fails-inspection-leaving-fremantle
HIGH MORTALITY INVESTIGATION REPORT 74: see report

Report 59: December 2018; Portland to Rongcheng (China); 20 days; 0.37% (9/2405) cattle mortality. Same problematic domestic hose fittings with same problems as Report 12. Rough seas and injuries. Extremes of temperature with -10 on unloading. Vet onboard - atypical but likely in response to previous issues.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE: COMMENT: vale_comment_report_59_mv_yangtze_fortune_cattle_to_china.pdf

Report 92: March 2019; Fremantle to Huanghua, China; 17 days; no AAV; 0.22% (6/2772) cattle mortality; average DBT 30°C,  WBT 26°C until Day 12 when DBT 12°C. Water infrastructure issues again noted for this ship. Mortality causes not ID apart from 2 euthanased as out of spec. No vet.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: see report

Report 111: April 2019; MV Yangtze Fortune; Portland to Tianjin; 20 days; 0.12% (6/4769 cattle) mortality. Poor pad conditions with resultant lameness. Faulty water pipes and troughs again noted on this vessel. Food troughs also dislodged. Heat stress (10% slight panting) with WBT 30°C. Long discharge.No vet.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: "Pen conditions deteriorated markedly after the first deck washout on days 8 and 9 and lasted until the second wash out on days 14 and 15 due to faulty water pipes and water troughs, poor pen drainage, and the humid conditions were considered to be the major contributors to poor pen conditions. ...caused lameness in a significant number of animals."

Report 128: May 2019; MV Broome to Jakarta and Panjang; 8 days; 0.04% (2/5149) cattle mortality. Infrastructure problems including narrow rail spacing, troughs knocked off. Drainage issues. No vet.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: some pens remained over-stocked for the voyage - ASEL noncompliant.
As per previous voyages:  troughs were often knocked off the pen rails. This resulted in troughs contaminated with manure or fines. Five pens were noted to have reduced access to feed and water due to narrow spacing between rails which limited placement of water and feed troughs. Crew attempted to fix this issue by placing troughs inside the pens however this reduced pen space and meant it was easier for troughs to be knocked off or soiled.
Deck washing on Decks 1-3 occurred on day 4. Deck 1 had significant build-up of water causing animals to stand almost up to their knees in water for in excess of 2 hours. This was due to using multiple hoses on multiple decks to get the cleaning done quickly due to restrictions of effluent discharge in close proximity to land. No sawdust was provided to wet pens after washing. There was not enough sawdust for this purpose because it was required for the discharge. Pen conditions on Deck 1 improved by Day 5 but report implies water took "subsequent days" to drain.

Report 152: Jul 2019; MV Yangtze Fortune; Fremantle to Huanghua (China); 16 days; 0.35% (8/2303 cattle) mortality. Incorrect stocking density calculation. No temperature details but necropsy to check for hyperthermia so heat stress likely present and sanitised out of report. No bedding for cattle (ASEL non-compliance not noted). No vet.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: see report
NOTE: food and water troughs being knocked off were noted as per previous reports with problem clearly not addressed by AMSA or Dept

Report 201: Nov 2019; MV Yangtze Fortune; Portland to Qinzhou; 18 days; 0/4165 cattle mortality. Inadequate food (10 days). Heat stress. Ringworm. Some cattle in poor body condition. Vet onboard.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: see report.
Note: The report stated that there were no negative health and/or welfare consequences 5 times in the summary and one of these was when animals reported to be lying prone due to heat stress.Request for documents under FOI denied.

Report 210: Dec 2019; MV Yangtze Fortune;  Portland to Huanghua, China; 21 days; 0.15% (7/4657). Inadequate food for pregnant cattle (1 animal died of ketosis). Mild heat stress. Stocking density/loadplan issues took 7 days to correct (1/3 voyage). Water leaks (routine for this vessel), drainage issues (routine for this vessel), inadequate ventilation. 11% (500) animals required treatment for ill health; unspecified number of cattle with dermatitis/ringworm reportedly untreated thus >11% animals with health problems. Vet onboard.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: see report; The Dept stated that procedural breaches despite >11% cattle have clinical illness(with 1 animal dying of ketosis) and 11% requiring treatment)? Dept sanitisation at its brilliant best

4 March 2020: VALE wrote to the Department to raise concerns about repetitive issues on voyages specifically noting MV Yangtze Fortune. Analysing the Independent Observer (IO) reports closely, it is very obvious that particular vessels, or particular areas in certain vessels have issues that are noted repetitively. For example, MV Yangtze Fortune has had repeated reports of water infrastructure issues such as clip on domestic hose fittings dislodging or breaking with leaks, flooding and lack of water delivery in addition to troughs being easily displaced due to shape with the issue resulting in food and/or water deprivation and spillage.

AND FROM VESSEL TRACKER WEBSITE 
Aug 15 2018: 
The AMSA also confirmed it had ordered modifications to be made to the sister ship "Yangtze Fortune" as he vessel was not suited to voyages of more than 10 days. The "Yangtze Fortune" is already at the centre of a investigation by the Federal Agriculture Department after 33 cattle died on a voyage from Victoria to China in July. She arrived in Darwin on Aug 10 and was inspected. The AMSA found drainage holes on livestock decks were not big enough and prevented water draining quickly away from the deck. The ship has been permitted to carry 5000 cattle on a short, one-off voyage from Darwin to Jakarta.