The link (title) will bring you to a youtube video about the Texas oil spill that happened on January 23, 2010. This shipping accident dumped over 450,000-500,000 gallons of oil into Port Arthur's coast!!! (according to the US coast guard - so it could be more) At 9:30 that morning, the 600 foot Eagle Otome ship was struck by two barges that were being towed by a tug boat.
There are currently investigations going on. The Coast Guard stated that they will do drug and alcohol testing to everyone who was on board. Water tanks, sensitive wildlife and other places are being checked for oil leakage into those areas. They are also mapping where the oil will move with the tide.
Arghhhhh. It just irritates me that these things happen whether they are by accident or not. Oil spills and such kills thousands of animals every year and nothing really is being done to prevent it like maybe call out all smaller ships to move away before the ship enters. Even with the drug and alcohol testing, can they really pin blame onto someone to pay for the damages? Anyway, there is no way to pay for the damages. I just hope the Coast Guards can work efficently in trapping as much oil as they can before it reaches other habitats because thats ALOT of oil. What do you guys think? What can we do to prevent things like this from happening or at least make it less frequent?
Pete & Joe
1 hour ago
5 comments:
It irritates me as well because oil spills are a bizatch to clean up. Their effects can last up to years after, which is incredibly detrimental to the surrounding ecosystem of an area. If the drug/alcohol testing proves positive for some of the crew members then, wow...that level of irresponsibility is unbelievable.
I'm indifferent towards the environment but this is just reckless stupidity. Whoever was in charge, I don't care how many people were involved, needs to be fired. I'm not speaking on the environment's behalf, but on the oil's behalf. Idiots.
I agree that this is extremely reckless. Im not sure exactly how oil spills occur, but it seems to me like it is definitely preventable. Maybe there is a need for better technology to prevent this or just being more careful, but honestly oil spills are just ridiculous. The effect is going to hugely hurt the ecosystem, not to mention add even more contamination to the oceans.
It says that they are doing drug tests to see who did it? Well, finding the person isn't going to solve the problem. maybe instead, the investigators can try and figure out how and why it is even a possibility that so much old could be dumped/spilled.
Was this a single hull tanker? Because if it was, they need to start phasing those out and start using double hulled or whatever the best method is to keep the oil in the tankers.
-Yuzo Yanagitsuru
Well oil spills I believe normally occur because of leakage as the boats go over seas. (crashes?) True, the drug tests to show whos responsible for this won't help fix the problem but it still places that person in a position in that they will hopefully be less prone to making the same mistake later on. 500,000 gallons oil is nothing to laugh at whether he or she is drunk or not.
I don't know much about boats but double hulled sounds more safe.
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