Oil Tanker Runs a ground the Great Barrier Reef

[Parker]

Unfortunately the damage done to the reef in measurable dollars is probably less then the capital cost of starting up and operating a fleet of guide vessels. Couple that with the risk matrix, I guarantee someone somewhere crunched the numbers, could it happen "Yes". How often is it likely to happen? " Once in One Year, Once in Ten Years, Once in a Hundred years? etc"
"Scale of 1-10" how much damage could it do" What are the consequences should it happen... and on and on. It's a simple fact of doing business; I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying.

We all make these decisions in our day-to-day lives, maybe not to this scale, but we make them. We buy brand A over brand B because of cost, whether it's cost of product, cost of operation etc, case in point, we all don't own Bubble Kings.. The Bubble King does a better job and costs less to operate but guess what, I can only afford the Coralife. The Coralife WILL overflow and spew it's waste all over my carpet, Is it likely to happen "Yes" How often? "Scale of 1-10".... I just went through the same thought process the shipping company did and I still bought the Coralife.

I'm not trying to defend the shipping company; I'm simply pointing out the fact that implementing technological and administrative controls to defend against every conceivable incident just isn't possible. Sometimes accidents just happen.