What makes a good maritime disaster?

[Peppermint]

Alaska is getting oiled up bigtime again. Fisheries closed, birds oiled, black coastline. Some are saying it's the biggest spill since the Exxon Valdez. It's not been on the news over here though, has it?

More details at

http://www.ktuu.com/CMS/templates/master.asp?articleid=10849&zoneid=4

 

[Mirelle]

Different thing altogether

The Selandang Ayu was a dry bulk carrier; the oil spilled is just her fuel

 

[aitchw]

Re: Different thing altogether

Oh, well that's all right then! As long as it's only fuel.

 

[Mirelle]

Quantity, dear boy

Couple of thousand tons, only.

And in the open sea, where it is often quite rough, not in a more or less sheltered fjord.

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Different thing altogether

It's a somewhat different scale is what I think Mirelle was trying to say

321 thousand gallons spilled out of the 424 thousand gallons onboard.

By contrast, Exxon Valdez incident was 11 million gallons spilled out of 54 million gallons onboard

 

[Mirelle]

Thank you!

Of course, there are disasters and there are disasters.

When the Regent Tampopo (I think it was) grounded and broke up on Easter Island in the early 1980's, reputedly due to trying to anchor to land a sick man in an insufficent depth of water, the locals were delighted - she was carrying a full cargo of timber - Easter Island has been treeless for a few centuries now. On a smaller scale, I personally recall the citizens of Lerwick, which is similarly afflicted, being not too unhappy when the Fred Everard shed part of a deck stow of timber in 1977.

 

[Peppermint]

Re: Have I got the wrong foreign sounding boat then?

They've got very excited about it. Greenpeace, not always the most dispassionate bunch, I'll give you, are going on alarming about the size of the spill.

 

[Mirelle]

Don\'t think so

Greenpeace are good at getting excited.

"Small spill, few ducks oiled" does not have the same ring!

 

[tome]

Re: Don\'t think so

I did a course at Maritime Rescue in Stonehaven tailored for North Sea rescue crews on seismic survey ships. At the same time, they were running a course for Greenpeace RIB drivers.

The objectives couldn't have been more different, but both had common elements of boat handling and personal safety. It was quite amusing to see the lengths taken to keep our two groups apart as Greenpeace regard us as their enemy and will disrupt us whenever bored.

Don't know if the instructors told them who we were, but they kept their distance and were most respectful.

 

[aitchw]

Re: Don\'t think so

Extract from AMCC website.

To date, 983 dead birds have been recovered and 29 live oiled birds were sent to rehabilitation. Ten of the birds were later released. Some researchers say the actual numbers of dead animals is probably 20 to 30 times as great. So that means up to 30,000 dead birds in this spill so far. Five sea otter carcasses have been recovered.

'Small spill, few ducks oiled' just about says it all really.