A commercial fishing vessel ran aground off East Cape after the marine engineer on night watch let it drift into too shallow waters, against the skipper’s instructions.

Hyeon Kwan Choi, 70, appeared in the Whakatāne District Court this month on a charge of dangerous activity involving ships or maritime products.

Following a sentencing indication from Judge Louis Bidois, he pleaded guilty to the charge and was fined $3500.

The Maritime New Zealand prosecution followed an incident ion July 2024, in which the 20.54-metre vessel owned by Eureka Fishing Ltd and operated by Mojo Consultants Ltd ended up on rocky ground near Lottin Point in the early hours of the morning.

Choi was one of five aboard the vessel at the time of the incident and was charged by the skipper with keeping watch.

According to the summary of facts, the Remus left Tauranga on about July 7 with the intention of continuing to fish until July 14. It was set up to target hagfish by potting, using a backbone line.

The skipper was on watch during fishing times with Choi on watch for four-to-six hours when the fishing and processing was over.

On July 13, Choi went to bed at 5pm and woke at 11pm to take up his watch responsibilities.

The skipper had brought the Remus closer to shore near Lottin Point because the weather was bad. He checked the wind direction at the time and determined the vessel was tracking to drift back out to sea.

At 1am on July 14, the skipper asked Choi to take over watch while the fishing crew were resting.

He told Choi they were within half a mile of land but the track they were showing was heading out to sea, away from the land.

If they were to drift any closer than half a mile, he told Choi the Remus would need to be moved further away from land.

From 1am, under Choi’s watch, the Remus drifted within a half nautical mile of land for about two hours.

Choi was aware it was drifting towards land but, contrary to the skipper’s instructions, he did not move the vessel because he considered there to be enough water and thought it would drift past the land.

He did not wake the skipper.

At about 3am, he saw the depth sounder was showing 5.7 metres so turned the engine on and put the Remus in gear.

At this stage, the vessel was about 100m off land.

Choi thougth the Remus was facing north-east, which would have been offshore, so turned the vessel starboard in an attempt to drive it out to sea.

Instead, the Remus grounded on the rocky shore.

The skipper was woken at 3am to the impact of the vessel grounding on rocks and the engine running.

He checked the radar, could see land straight ahead so knew the propeller was in deeper water and put it into reverse, managing to get it off the rocks.

No one was injured, but there was damage to the Remus, including a split hull. The vessel was not insured.

Choi said he was aware the Remus was driving closer to land against the skipper’s instructions, but decided to continue drifting because he thought there was enough water.

He said he was keeping an eye on the electronic sea plotter and the echo sounder.

Because of the mark that said 16m, he said he thought the whole area was 16m – until the sounder suddenly showed only 5.7m, which was when he decided to try and move the vessel.

This was not the first time the Remus had run aground or been the subject of a Maritime NZ investigation.

In February 2021, the vessel ran aground on a remote beach in Big Bay, Fiordland. Following multiple unsuccessful attempts, it was safely refloated after four days.

In 2022, Eureka Fishing Ltd and Choi, who was responsible for its day-to-day business, were sentenced on charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act for incidents that occurred in late 2020 and early 2021.

The first incident saw two crew members on the Remus exposed to risk of injuries with one suffering an infection due to prolonged handling of a particular species of fish.

In the second, a teenage crew member lost the tips of two fingers in an incident involving a pulley.

The company failed to notify Maritime NZ of the incident involving the loss of the fingertips, leaving it up to the victim to make the notification themselves.

In 2023, the director of Maritime NZ issued Choi with a letter deeming him unsuitable to manage Eureka Fishing’s Maritime Transport Operator Certificate.