Bunker Oil Spill In English Bay

[Peahead]

This is rather disturbing . I think also a warning for those boating/fishing in the harbour


http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2015/04/cargo-ship-spills-oil-vancouvers-english-bay-photos/


Edit - just noticed this has also been posted in the Saltwater Fishing Forum

 

[jeffywestcoast]

Hope they find the bastards responsible must be one of them big ships..what a mess...

 

[wishiniwasfishin1]

That is awful. We will likely be seeing the results of that spill on the beaches for years...

 

[bigdogeh]

never a matter of if... always a matter of when....

 

[dwflyrod]

that is just so wrong . it makes me so mad and they want more ships on bc coast that makes me sick

 

[Dogbreath]

That is awful. We will likely be seeing the results of that spill on the beaches for years...

No we won't most of it has already evaporated.

I'll head down to the bay later and post back what's to be seen-if anything.

 

[Peahead]

Actually that is not correct according to the recent press conference just completed. I saw the live press conference on CBC web from Canada Place at 3:25ish today and the Coast Guard fellow confirmed that some of the "oil" had hit the beaches but in small amounts and that a veryrough estimate of 3,000 liters had spilled and approx 1,400 had been recovered/removed by the time of that conference. When asked about evaporation he explained that only up to 5% of the "oil" would evaporate. The recovery needed to be quick as possible because when the substance comes into contact with other materials it will ball up ad then can sink.

He made it clear at that time that the spilled substance was at a lab being tested so they did not know yet what form of "oil" it was ( crude or not) . He also made it clear they had not yet been able to locate the source of the oil and where it came from .....other than it seemed to be coming from one particular grain tanker anchored in the harbour. That Tanker was cooperating but of couse insisted that they had nothing to do with the spill and were not the source.

 

[Dogbreath]

Just got back from Kits Beach no evidence of any kind of spill not yet anyway.

 

[Cuba Libre]

A small wake-up spill like this one could not have happened in a better location. Maybe now more of the city folks will understand why the people in the Central Coast, North Coast, Haida Gaii (sp) and on the shores of Van Isle keep saying NO to more TANKER traffic . If the Vancouver folk get their nickers in a knot about such a small spill from a bulk carrier-- imagine the damage from a REAL tanker......

 

[OldBlackDog]

A sailor first reported the estimated kilometre-long oil slick to Port Metro Vancouver at about 5 p.m. but the coast guard didn’t begin to contain the area until 8 p.m. By 2 a.m. Thursday crews in five boats from private contractor West Coast Marine Response Corp. had set up a boom around the ship Marathassa, a bulk grain carrier from Korea. They worked all night and into the next day to recover some of the heavier oil around the ship and try to pinpoint its source.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ef...+with+video/10957761/story.html#ixzz3WsTULL9x

 

[Clint r]

A small wake-up spill like this one could not have happened in a better location. Maybe now more of the city folks will understand why the people in the Central Coast, North Coast, Haida Gaii (sp) and on the shores of Van Isle keep saying NO to more TANKER traffic . If the Vancouver folk get their nickers in a knot about such a small spill from a bulk carrier-- imagine the damage from a REAL tanker......

X2 on this. Hopefully it opens some peoples eyes.

 

[Pippen]

A small wake-up spill like this one could not have happened in a better location. Maybe now more of the city folks will understand why the people in the Central Coast, North Coast, Haida Gaii (sp) and on the shores of Van Isle keep saying NO to more TANKER traffic . If the Vancouver folk get their nickers in a knot about such a small spill from a bulk carrier-- imagine the damage from a REAL tanker......

Add to that regarding "wake-ups"....the closing of Kits Coast Guard base which did have a spill response vessel at it which could have been on scene very quickly. Instead....that vessel sits at dry dock on Sea Island; stupid.

 

[tincan]

A couple of comments on the bunker fuel spill yesterday.

1) Pretty poor collaboration / communication on the part of all response teams. Between the Port, the City of Vancouver, the Coast Guard, etc it seemed like they all operate in their own little silo. I think one reason for this is the politics involved in anything related to environmental incidents. With many proposed projects (mines, pipelines, tankers) there is a very divisive nature in the way any small or large incident is reported. Somebody spills a cup of gas while re-fueling their boat and one side claims this is reason to shut down all tanker traffic while the other side pretends nothing happened or tries to cover it up. At the end of the day it's a chore for the avg person to learn what actually happended and what it actually means. Sad state of affairs really.

2) Concerns for fish health in Vancouver. After speaking with a DFO rep yesterday at length about this I can safely say this is not a great time for this spill to occur (not that there is a good time). Right now there are 10,000's of juvenille salmon as well as many forage fish on both the Spanish Banks side and English Bay side that are hanging out around the beaches. These juvenille fish will most likely just stay down a little deeper in the water if they sense this toxic fuel at the surface but it could be an issue if it reaches the beaches in large quantity and/or get into the food chain in any meaningful way. The DFO rep said if a significant amount of fuel does reach Spanish Banks (for instance) you can most definitely expect some salmon mortality. Let's all hope this is not the case and that the majority is cleaned up prior to reaching the beaches. Based on the pic attached some has already washed up on 2nd beach in near Stanley Park.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...d-size-unconfirmed-says-coast-guard-1.3026227

 

[GLG]

World class?????

https://vimeo.com/124640475?hc_location=ufi

 

[trophywife]

a company named burrard clean should be on this,, private company on contract from all the oil companies and an insurance company....

 

[GLG]

a company named burrard clean should be on this,, private company on contract from all the oil companies and an insurance company....

They are now called Western Canada Marine Response Corporation and they are the ones that are out there cleaning up.

We are completely funded by industry. Our shareholders are the 4 major oil companies (Imperial Oil, Shell Canada, Chevron and Suncor) and Trans Mountain pipelines.
http://wcmrc.com/faqs/

i think kinderMorgan is the major shareholder.

 

[wishiniwasfishin1]

Here is a bit of a description of what 'Bunker fuel' is..from cbc

The toxic spill in Vancouver's English Bay has been identified as bunker fuel, otherwise known as residual fuel oil.

According to the oil industry's material data sheets, the oil is a complex blend of hydrocarbons derived from various refinery streams, usually residue from the oil refinery processes. It is recommended for use in marine diesel engines, boilers, furnaces and other combustion equipment.

The safety data sheet recorded by Shell Marine Fuel Oil in 2013, lists a number of hazards associated with the combustible material, including the possible presence of hydrogen sulphide, which is not only harmful if inhaled, but has a vapour that can also be trapped in clothing.

The list of possible effects are listed as:

Harmful if inhaled
Suspected of damaging fertility or the unborn child
May cause damage to organs or organ systems through prolonged or repeated exposure
May cause cancer

The fuel is also, according to Shell's data, extremely dangerous for the marine environment.

Very toxic to aquatic life
Very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects

 

[agentaqua]

So many reasons heavy hydrocarbons are bad when released into the environment.

PAHs are arguably the worst constituent of all heavy hydrocarbons. They cause birth defects and larval deformities in fish - directly from exposure.

Another issue often not discussed - exposure to the toxic constituents in heavy hydrocarbons can cause immune system changes in exposed individuals so that later - the fish die from a disease like VHS - that isn't often linked back to exposure of the oil. Often the die-offs go unnoticed since the fish most commonly sink after dying.

After the Valdez spill in Alaska - herring suffered from VHS outbreaks and big populations of them died and the food chain was affected - and still is.

 

[OldBlackDog]

After widespread criticism of its response, the Canadian Coast Guard has issued a detailed timeline outlining the sequence of events immediately following the detection of a major oil spill in Vancouver's English Bay.
Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas said, in a statement released Sunday, the agency was first notified by a recreational boater of a slick around the bulk grain carrier Marathassa at 5:10 p.m. PT Wednesday.

'The Canadian Coast Guard's response … was exceptional by international standards.'<cite class="pullquote-source" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); color: rgb(89, 89, 89); display: block; font-size: 0.786em; font-style: normal; padding: 6px 8px 8px;">- Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas</cite>​

Within four minutesthe coast guard says it had notified its emergency management partners whose job is to inform local shore-side authorities including municipal governments and First Nations.
At 5:38 p.m. PT, the coast guard said a harbour vessel for the Port of Vancouver had assessed the spill as minor and unrecoverable, but the coast guard's own assessment, an hour later, determined the spill was more serious.

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Thomas said the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation was tasked with the oil's cleanup and arrived on scene at 9:25 p.m. PT.
Contrary to criticism that nothing was done until the next day, Thomas said crews went to work that night.
"Our partners carried out skimming in the dark and completed securing a boom around the vessel by 5:53 a.m PT. Even before most British Columbians woke up, the boom was completely surrounding the suspect vessel," she said.
"[Eighty] per cent of the spill was not only contained, but was recovered within 36 hours. The Canadian Coast Guard's response to the Marathassa spill was exceptional by international standards."
[h=2]Communication breakdown, new oil[/h]However, during a morning news conference, Assistant Commissioner Roger Girouard said that even though the coast guard sent out the proper notifications, there was a breakdown in communications.
"There were some human factors in a number of organizations where the relay of the intent of the alarm was not always received or passed on," he said. "I can tell you that the coast guard as an organization passed the message on. I can also tell you that the alarm bell did not particularly make it to the mayor of Vancouver."

Assistant Canadian Coast Guard Commissioner Roger Girouard says partner agencies didn't fully communicate the extent of the spill Wednesday and as a result the mayor of Vancouver was not notified. (CBC)

Girouard declined to specify where the communication breakdown occurred, but said all agencies are reviewing the chain of events to come up with a simpler, faster notification system that would be more widely broadcast.
"We thought we had a sophisticated system in place. Something went awry," he said. "We will fix it."
Girouard also revealed the coast guard had discovered some new oil near the vessel.
The oil was likely either "flushed out of an outlet" or was washed by waves off a soiled boom, Girouard said.
Girouard said the oil was contained and there is no chance of it escaping or coming to shore. He said the old boom will today be replaced with a new one.
[h=2]Cleanup on shoreline[/h]He also disputed claims from former Kitsilano Coast Guard personnelthat their old base, which was shut down by the federal government, would have provided a faster response.
"Kitsilano was never manned with environment response experts," Girouard said. "Kitsilano, should it have been in place, would not have been called upon for environmental response in this scenario."
Girouard said the oil booms the base possessed were for containment of their own spills.
Cleanup over the next several days is now focused on the shoreline. The coast guard is still asking the public to stay away because the oil requires professional disposal.
He said there are still no signs of distress among marine mammals due to the spill. So far between 12 and 30 oil-covered birds have been rescued and treated.
Girouard asked people to report oil-fouled birds and not try and help. He said if people approach birds, they could scare them back into the water, in effect "killing them with kindness."

 

[spring fever]

I guess it's the sign of the times and my cynical old age-but I find myself doubting just about anything that a gov't official or ex gov't official says now days. Spin used to mean turning rapidly- now it seems to mean just about any gov't communique where the gov't may be put in a bad light by it's action or inaction. Of course the Kits coast guard station would never have been called-if they would have it would be admitting to a large gov't mistake-so of course they didn't need them. Still by the gov'ts own timeline took 12 hours to get a boom around the vessel, took over 4 hrs to get a clean-up crew on the scene-they admit that the mayor of Vancouver was somehow not notified(not their fault-somebody else dropped the ball). I have to say the mayor of Vancouver might have wanted to put a bike lane in to view it!!!LOL Spin boys spin!! This was a FAIL pure and simple-we are not equipped, nor are we ready to handle a catastrophic spill-this was only 3000 litres wonder how 3,000,000 (that's million)would have been handled-imagine the spin and ball dropping we would get there!! Just sayin!!