Offal gas knocks out longliner’s engineers

A routine maintenance job on board longliner Antarctic Discovery became a life-threatening emergency when decomposing fish offal was accidentally pumped into a machinery space, released toxic gas and put four workers in hospital. The incident took place in February 2025, and the subsequent report has been made public by the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC). On 21st February 2025, Antarctic Discovery was in dry dock at Lyttelton. Two apprentice fitters descended a ladder to the bow thruster machinery space to work on pipe components tucked behind a tank that held had a mixture of decaying fish offal and seawater. The pipework was immediately adjacent to the control panel for the offal pump. It is considered likely that one of the fitters accidentally pressed the pump’s unlabelled start button, and the holding tank’s contents rained onto them from the open end of a hose at the top of the ladder. Foul-smelling toxic hydrogen sulphide gas (a known ...