Caption: MV Wealth was arrested for suspected involvement in transnational organised crime and under Solomon Islands police escort when she broke down, requiring an emergency tow by Pacific Salvor to Honiara.
Pacific Towing (PacTow) has strengthened its ability to respond to marine casualties with changes to the geographic deployment and capability of its tug fleet increasing the number of salvage-capable vessels available for emergency work.
The Papua New Guinea-headquartered marine services company now has salvage-capable assets permanently positioned in both PNG and Solomon Islands, while the addition of two technologically advanced new-build tugs to its PNG fleet is providing greater flexibility to mobilise other vessels for emergency response, salvage and long-distance towage.
PacTow has a long history of salvage and emergency response throughout PNG and the wider region, with operations extending into Solomon Islands, Fiji, Micronesia, Indonesia, Guam and northern Australia. Its previous assignments have ranged from grounded and disabled vessels to wreck removals, long-distance emergency towage and pollution-related incidents.
Salvage capability now permanently based in Solomon Islands
A key change to PacTow’s regional response capability has been the permanent deployment of the 50-tonne bollard-pull ASD tug Pacific Salvor to Honiara.
Previously PacTow’s salvage-capable tug fleet was distributed around PNG. Having Pacific Salvor permanently operating from Solomon Islands extends that geographic footprint and provides a vessel with appropriate specifications for salvage, emergency towage, wreck removal, firefighting support and long-distance ocean towage closer to potential casualties in and around Solomon Islands and the wider region.
New-build tugs add fleet flexibility
That geographic expansion is being complemented by investment in PacTow’s PNG fleet.
The company has invested PGK70 million in two new-build ASD tugs, Pacific Responder and Pacific Resolute. With bollard pulls of 70 tonnes and 60 tonnes respectively, they are PacTow’s two most powerful tugs and incorporate advanced firefighting capability.
Although the vessels are being introduced primarily to strengthen harbour towage services in PNG, their effect on PacTow’s salvage and emergency response capacity is broader.
The addition of Pacific Responder and Pacific Resolute provides more fleet depth. PacTow can continue meeting its core harbour towage commitments while having greater flexibility to release appropriately equipped tugs for emergency response, salvage, oil-spill response and major towage projects elsewhere.
Taken together, these changes provide a two-part increase in regional capability: a wider geographic spread of salvage-capable vessels through Pacific Salvor’s permanent presence in Solomon Islands, combined with greater fleet depth in PNG as the two new-build vessels enter service.
Four emergency assignments in 2026
PacTow has undertaken four emergency response assignments so far in 2026. In May, ASD tug Waiowa travelled 214 nautical miles from Lae to reach a disabled general cargo and passenger vessel adrift east of Karkar Island in the Bismark Sea and tow it to safe anchorage in Madang. In July, Pacific Salvor was mobilised twice from Honiara: first to tow a 98-metre general cargo vessel that had broken down at sea while under police escort, and later to remove a burning cargo and passenger vessel from Honiara Port when nearby vessels and fuel-storage facilities were at risk. A fourth assignment followed in August, when ASD tugs, Keera and Tavurvur, assisted a 108-metre general cargo vessel adrift following main engine failure just outside the Basilisk Passage close to Port Moresby. The tow was connected successfully and the casualty towed to safe harbour.
Together, the four assignments demonstrate the value of having salvage-capable assets available across both PNG and Solomon Islands, backed by sufficient fleet depth to respond to emergencies while maintaining core harbour towage commitments.
More than vessels alone
Tug availability is only one part of salvage response.
PacTow’s broader capability includes salvage personnel, marine engineers, specialised response equipment and a permanent commercial dive team.
The company’s commercial diving operation is the only permanently based operation of its type in Melanesia, giving PacTow access to an in-house capability that would otherwise often need to be mobilised internationally.
PacTow is also Melanesia’s only full member of the International Salvage Union (ISU) and is a member of the International Spill Control Organization (ISCO).
Combined with its wider fleet deployment, these in-house capabilities give PacTow a broader base from which to respond to marine casualties across the region.
