Concerns for crew of former ferry at anchor in Tasman Bay

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) is voic­ing its con­cern regard­ing the wel­fare of under­paid sea­far­ers onboard the ves­sel Vega (for­mer­ly the Aratere), which is sit­ting at anchor in Tas­man Bay for over 50 days.

MUNZ Nation­al Sec­re­tary Carl Find­lay says the Union has received reports regard­ing the well­be­ing of crew mem­bers onboard the ves­sel, which is under­stood to be await­ing tran­sit to a ship break­ing yard.

Con­tracts obtained by the Union con­firm the ves­sel is cur­rent­ly reg­is­tered to Jahaj Solu­tions (F.Z.E), based in U.A.E.

“This ves­sel was once the flag­ship of New Zealand’s fer­ry fleet. It is now sit­ting off our coast with a for­eign crew who are cut off from shore, and on con­tracts that pay well below Inter­na­tion­al Labour Orga­ni­za­tion (ILO) min­i­mum stan­dards,” Mr Find­lay says.

Crew agree­ments viewed by the Union reveal that an Able Sea­man on board is being paid a basic wage of just US$206 per month. This is sig­nif­i­cant­ly below the ILO min­i­mum basic wage for an Able Sea­far­er, which rose to US$690 per month on 1 Jan­u­ary 2026.

Even with over­time and allowances includ­ed, the total month­ly pay for an Able Sea­man is only US$550, still far below accept­ed inter­na­tion­al min­i­mums.

“The crew have now been onboard with the ship at anchor for near­ly two months with no sign of progress,” Mr Find­lay says.

While the vessel’s agents and Mas­ter have claimed the crew are in good health and that pro­vi­sions are being sup­plied, Mr Find­lay says there needs to be inde­pen­dent ver­i­fi­ca­tion.

MUNZ is call­ing on reg­u­la­tor Mar­itime NZ to con­duct an imme­di­ate, inde­pen­dent wel­fare check on all crew mem­bers onboard the Vega to ensure they are safe, paid cor­rect­ly, and have the option to be repa­tri­at­ed if they wish to leave the ves­sel.