We are facing, close to my house, another enviromental disaster, after a tanker was badly damaged by the storms, abondoned by the crew and due to a crack is spilling tons of fuel to the sea. I say, “another” because our coast (nortwest of Spain) suffers from an increasing traffic of tankers and most of them don´t fullfil the minimum safety maritime laws. Too many disaster, and nothing seems to change. Typical ships from Bahamas, owned by Greek, whose crew member are philipines, taking Letonian fuel for a Japanese company….No double shells, no safety procedures, and a crew which abandons the ship close to the clifts. The cost is a paradise nature haven, and once more serious consecuences for fishermen, enviroment, and I am affraid it won´t be the last one. 🙁 I am really sad today.
By: keltic - 16th November 2002 at 23:12
RE: Enviromental disaster
Well, I live in a quite unspoilt area, no many industries, no many tourism. So everything it´s pretty wild and natural. As far as what you mention, there are several nature parks with different different spicies and which will be really damaged. Tomorrow, I´ll help, as a Greenpeace volunteer, to clean up the first leak which has just arrived. Really dramatic is the situation of fishing in a so dependant area where this is the main activity. That´s bad for a sector which had suffered so much due to EU cuts, and fishers who were looking forward to the Christmas fishing campaign (for seafood and cockels…and so on) and as you suppose it´s a big blow.
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By: mongu - 16th November 2002 at 20:22
RE: Enviromental disaster
Yeah, it does look quite bad. Isn’t there an offshore region where lots of seabirds live, close to the ship?
In terms of low quality Bahamian ships, I would say that there is no shipping version of ICAO and that there are not many standards for marine transport. Captains qualify once and do not require check rides or refresher courses. Maybe the UN should start to do something?
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November 16, 2002 at 6:10 pm