On the rocks: Balinese environmentalists and international surfers are fearful of pollution to come after a farcical salvage attempt failed on the famous Padang Padang beach.
ATTEMPTS to refloat a Taiwanese "ghost ship" that ran aground on Bali's best surf break have foundered, prompting fears of an environmental disaster.
Police have described the vessel as a crime scene, confirming its captain may have been murdered. Taiwanese investigators have arrived in Bali to carry out their own inquiry.
A flotilla of small fishing boats failed to refloat the 35-metre fishing vessel yesterday and Thursday. It is believed surfing companies and the boat's owner paid cash to local officials to hire a powerful tugboat, but it never appeared.
Last weekend's arrival of the Ho Tsai Fa No.18 off the Padang Padang beach caused consternation within the international surfing community, threatening to disrupt the return of the world surfing tour to Bali next month after a 10-year absence. With heavy swells predicted this weekend, it is feared the boat could break up, spreading wreckage and fuel along the Bukit Peninsula and possibly contaminating the other planned site for the contest, Uluwatu.
Taiwanese officials and police have visited the site, saying they were conducting their own inquiries and treating the incident as a possible murder investigation.
It has been rumoured that the dozen Indonesian crew members mutinied while fishing off Papua and threw their Taiwanese captain overboard. After running aground on Bali, the crew supposedly fled.
Taiwanese authorities requested international assistance to locate the boat several weeks ago, after it sped away from another Taiwanese vessel and maintained radio silence, sparking concern the crew might have mutinied.
Indonesian police yesterday said they were searching for the crew. It is believed they are treating them as suspects.
The Ho Tsai Fa No. 18 has a chequered history. It was apprehended off Costa Rica in 2003 with 60,000 kilograms of illegally caught shark fin. Early this year, Greenpeace activists intercepted the ship fishing illegally in the Pacific.
Locals described attempts to refloat the vessel as farcical. "It was like trying to pull an elephant with a toothpick," one said.
A "flotation device" provided by the fishing crews turned out to be a large piece of Styrofoam.
The chairman of a local environmental group, the ROLE Foundation, Chris Moore, has been attempting to co-ordinate salvage efforts.
When the tugboat failed to arrive, the fishing boats made a futile attempt to shift the vessel. "We missed our window of opportunity," Mr Moore said. "It was frustrating we were unable to get the tugboat in."
Rising waves and tides had pushed the vessel further onto the rocks, taking it off Padang Padang's famous surf break but complicating salvage attempts.
The vessel was likely to remain there and be holed. ROLE staff were trying to contain oil slicks already emerging from the vessel yesterday.