Oil Spill in SF Bay

Anyone have any inside info on who is at fault for this? I have read several articles and none have said what company is to blame. All I have heard is a tanker rammed into a tower on Bay Bridge, how the hell did that happen? Having lived in the bay area I am very concerned as must all of you that currently live and sail in those waters. Glad to see there is a huge volunteer effort towards clean up.

The local papers say that the CG called the pilot and were concerned about the ship's course, and the pilot radioed back that it was fine. So the speculation ranges from human error to equipment error. The Pilot Commission, CG, and various other agencies will be investigating this thing for months. In the end, all we can really hope for is that we can learn what what wrong and how to avoid future accidents--I'm sure someone will get the blame but the damage is already done. The cleanup effort has been a debacle--I read in the Chron that a homeowner at Muir Beach was cited for trying to clean up tar balls, and that a bunch of locals have been trying to keep a boom strung across the opening to Bolinas Lagoon without any professional help. What a disgrace!

I went down to my boat yesterday to check things out. There was a sheen on the water, but no black oil. This morning, I read about 2/3 of the bunker fuel has already sunk, emulsified, or is clinging to shorelines--and the skimmers won't be able to recover that--so the toxic hangover will likely last for years.

Yes, Check Your Boat!

I just got an e-mail from a friend out there. He had to go out yesterday to pick-up his crab pots. All his NEW bouys and line are TRASH and his boats "a mess", PITA to clean AND TOXIC!

That Pilot's going to be "tipping-a-few" w/ Hazelwood when this is over!

My E27 is in the estuary and we have seen very little of the oil spill.

Interesting articles from the SF Chronical newspaper's website:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/11/MNIATAKFE.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/10/MN77T9Q3V.DTL

ragamuffin said:

Anyone have any inside info on who is at fault for this?

Click to expand...

"We blame the bridge for jumping in front of our ship!"

Signed,
Hanjin shipping lines

Kieth:

Path of the Cosco Busan Hitting the Bay Bridge

The animation below shows the Cosco Busan as it leaves the Port of Oakland on November 7, 2007, and hits the Bay Bridge at 8:30 am on its way to the Golden Gate.

The Cosco Busan is the bright red arrow. (Hover over a ship to see its information.)

http://www.boatingsf.com/busan.php

harbor pilot claimed this am (san fran chron paper) the ships capitan decided to make final turn....w/intermentant radar operating and no expierence nav in local area...the hearings and transcripts will be interesting...but, it won't help w/the problem you folks have in the bay today.....i guess time and skimming may be the best bet...too bad.....the sf bay area is a special area....i hope this does not have to big of an environmental impact over the next 2-6 years....

CNN) -- The crew of the ship that ran into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled thousands of gallons of oil into the water last week has retained lawyers and is not complying with requests for interviews from the National Transportation Safety Board, a board member said Wednesday.


A gash where the MV Cosco Busan struck a bridge support is visible as the ship sits at anchor Tuesday.

more photos » "The crew members' attorneys have not granted us access to the crew members," NTSB member Debbie Hershman told reporters in Oakland, California.

But even if they don't get to interview all the crew, Hershman added, "We will conduct a thorough investigation.

"We have very good tools and resources with respect to the VDR [voyage data recorder] and other materials to be able to conduct a thorough investigation."

Hershman said that data is now being reviewed at NTSB labs in Washington and investigators are awaiting translations on some portions of audio recordings, because some of the crew spoke in Chinese.

An update:

State charges bay spill pilot with misconduct

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/07/MN97TPRGE.DTL

Wow. I think of these harbor pilots as real hot shots, but that report makes it sound like Cota got very sloppy. Too bad. Such an accident should have been avoided, by the sounds of it.