RIP Moreton Island

[benno573]

Well now the damage has been fully realised... let's go through what the absolutely pathetic response from EPA and government has led to...

1) 20km of ocean beach on Moreton island covered in up to 15mm of muck - a mixture of crude oil and diesel. a totally non-biodegradable toxic mess. all life on this beach will die. pippies, worms, fish, crabs the lot. the sludge will stop them getting access to oxygen. not to mention the bird life...

2) approximatey 80km of sunny coast beaches covered in muck, stretching as far north as double island point. set to go further with prevailing winds. same damage as above.

3) rocky headlands from cape moreton north to DIP covered in muck. all life on the rocks killed, algae, weed the basis of the food chain. yet again, massive devastating effect on sea life of all shapes and sizes

4) flinders reef. the most significant coral reef outside of the GBRMP, covered in anything up to 10mm of muck. coral can't live without access to sunlight... yet again, effects are huge on an entire ecosystem.

5) all marine mammals/reptiles. these animals need to surface to breathe, surfacing into the muck leading them to be covered in it, potentially blinding them or suffocating them

6) all marine bird life - similar problems to mammals

7) US! brisbane fishos! forget about fishing in all areas affected for many many months to come. even if the beach is cleaned, there will be no life in it. it will take decades for the fisheries to recover to their former glory. this will affect migratory species such as mackeral, tuna, tailor and alike for months to come. a northerly change in the next few days will see us completely stuffed as it will direct oil into the bay... and to think all 10 news was really concerned about was tangalooma's dolphins...

the response to this absolute disaster was PATHETIC from all the necessary authorities. despite whatever negligence on the behalf of the shipping company is found, the effects of this could have been greatly reduced by a swift acting government and its agencies. but seeing as though there is an election in the air no-one thought to actually run the state. i'm so glad they bought in green zones to protect fish stocks... and then they allow something like this to occur.

Sorry for the rant guys. i am seethingly angry about this whole situation which could have been minismised at the very least.

cheers,

benno <'>-<

[landman]

Agree with every word benno . I am so angry about the lack of response bay the state goverment they add new green zone's yet don't have a plan of action for when some thing like this happens.IT'S DISGRACEFUL.

[AZZA]

I am gutted some heads should roll for this f@@@# up

[maxi]

benno has hit the nail on the head guys .... :( :ohmy: :ohmy:

its the biggest maritime disaster that qld has ever seen to my knowledge...

i am so sorry for you guys to have to endure this monumental catastrophe...not to mention the sealife ...:ohmy: :ohmy:

just heard they still havent devised a plan to combate this drama .....wtf ...

the company that owns the ship is flying out an oil pollutants experts from wherever ...big deal tooooooo late ....:ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:

[Malcolm]

I agree with what has been said and also these so called seaman did not get caught out there in a cyclone they sailed into the bloody thing :angry: :angry:

[Lukey]

I agree with this being an absolute disaster for our marine ecosystems, it may take a long time for the effects to wear off, however no offense guys but there was a category 4 cyclone out there which hampered the authorities response to this mess. Only today has the weather calmed down significantly to 25 knot winds and a 4 metre swell. Worth thinking about that factor before jumping on the bandwagon of this being a beaureucratic stuff up.

[Feral]

As long as they dont try to grab some more of our allowed fishing areas to replace the green zones they have not looked after! (Gee buggered in 14 days, thats gotta be a record for mismanagement ! ) but seriously hands off ya greenie bludgers!

[goldnugget]

I would have thought....yeah I know...bad habit...that Qld having major ports would have some sort of disaster management plan for this sort of scenario (at least the fuel oil spill)...sure the seas were rough out there, what about spraying dispersants from the air, they knew there was a slick and they didnt make any mention of how serious it actually was and where it was heading...were they even monitoring it? Any one thats anyone that has a key interest in this region who can spare the time, should be getting down there to see what can be done. Sure you wont be on any machinery but that doesnt mean they wont need man power to clean up a little in those areas inaccessable by machinery. It will show good intent by those on this and other fishing forums that we care and need to be a part of the recovery. Okay tell me to shut up now...I'm a bit pissed off with the way things are starting to pan out with this thing. I dont know who to contact or anything....maybe just rock up in convoy or something with a heap of buckets....I dont know. :S

[benno573]

Lukey wrote:

I agree with this being an absolute disaster for our marine ecosystems, it may take a long time for the effects to wear off, however no offense guys but there was a category 4 cyclone out there which hampered the authorities response to this mess. Only today has the weather calmed down significantly to 25 knot winds and a 4 metre swell. Worth thinking about that factor before jumping on the bandwagon of this being a beaureucratic stuff up.

the weather was sh!t that's for sure. they left for newcastle the morning before knowing full well what they were sailing into - at the time they left the cyclone was actually classed as a category 5. the fact that the master of the vessel was steaming at 22 knots (read the maritime safety preliminary incident report unless they have seized it for use in the investigation, i got a sneak peek ) straight into a 5m swell and had obviously NOT secured his containers properly is the problem here (not to mention they were travelling outside of the registered shipping lanes...). those containers if secured properly are designed to stay in place even if the ship rolls over to be perpendicular with the water.

the blame for the mess lies soley with the shipping company (based in hong kong) and the master of the vessel. the blame for the extent of the disaster lies with the qld government and the epa. if they had in place a decent disaster response they could have prevented much of this mess. even after the serious spillage in the river a while back they did NOT implement a serious oil spill contingency plan. spray dispersants and possibly placing a boom around the vessel would not have been 100% effective. but it sure would have been a sh!tload more than the 0% result they achieved.

based on current weather... the oil will hit fraser island in small quantities by tomorrow night's high tide.

[mills]

he is right if your not part of the soultion your part of the problem

[JackBarrett13]

This is what the government does!!!!!!!!!

i have a house over at moreton island and i dont want it to turn into a crude oil dump. when i go snorkelling i want to be swimming in water not petrol. And i want to bring in fish that i can eat not ones that r covered in oil!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Feral]

Depends on how far offshore it was, remember Qld waters only go out 3 knm, so may be a Federal responsibility (the accident at least) also Qld is in caretaker mode, no senior public servant can approve any activity which involves expenditure over a certain amount without direct ministerial approval, which makes everything very complicated.

But yes the Port of Brisbane should have extensive response plans for exactly this sort of event. Remember they had a similar accident in Gladstone Harbour within the last 12 months when a tug holed a ship and they had a significant oil leak, the response to that was very poor as well......In that case the ship got fined a huge amount of loot, even though it was the Tug that caused the leak!

[benno573]

mills wrote:

he is right if your not part of the soultion your part of the problem

I have contacted the EPA who at this stage have basically said... butt out. "we are currently working with the appropriate authorities to get the clean up under way. public assistance is not being called for at this stage". i reckon they should throw moreton isalnd open (free barges :woohoo: ) and anyone who can get over there and start scrubbing rocks! what a way to spend the weekend...

[maxi]

just heard that its worse than they ever imagined it could be

[goldnugget]

Yeah they would say that....they've stuffed it up right from the start now they want to try and salvage some pride...typical department they are all the same. They should be co-ordinating a clean up and set up a registry for anyone interested in taking part...all they need to do is co-ordinate and supply the tankers for the collection of the sludge. Timing is everything, the longer they leave it the worst the outcome....but hey they are the experts, and we dont know shit. Go online to the papers and tell the sort of reponse you got, and put forward the suggestion above and go public with it....see if they budge at all.....if the public response is overwhelming enough Anna will have to step up and do something, else she'll look even more useless coming up to the elections.

[maxi]

it wasnt even fuel oil just some awefull sludgy shit

[goldnugget]

I think that they reffered to it as 'heavy fuel oil' which I'm guessing is a thicker mix that will burn at a slower rate and not as regular diesel for your car or truck.....probably safer to transport that way...I dont know. Probably why they would ussually use dispersents to break it up.....I did some quick reading on the use of dispersents via aerial methods overseas on a large spill and they said the use of the dispersants in this way reduced the coastal impact down to 10 % . It was still significant but obviously not as bad as it could have been...I also read that there is oil spill equipment based at Mooloolaba which I understand is kitted out on water craft, and in Brisbane, as well as rainbow beach and the Goldcoast (unknown equipment there) based on the maritime safety Authority website (late nineties reports). It was silly of me to think they would have aircraft available when even the cops dont have access to one :S

[maxi]

bligh reckons she will ensure that the shipping company will be held fully responsible ...

[yoyo]

goldnugget wrote:

I think that they reffered to it as 'heavy fuel oil' which I'm guessing is a thicker mix that will burn at a slower rate and not as regular diesel for your car or truck.....

correct..

[Davo_Dinkum]

this just sucks mega .i wanted to take my kids there in the near future ,to see what i saw as a kid .

it's all ready different can't go here or there etc by the powers to be.

can't fish here or there by the powers to be ,so we can protect for the future etc.

then sh#t like this happens.what a f#uk up.

don't know if this is true or not

but i have heard that they should have been no where near us cause the cyclone and should have been way further out to sea waiting it out .they where not in the shipping lanes,and headed into the bay without a pilot.oh and the containers where not secured proper.

[noname]

saw the ship being moved to the dry docks tonight, a big list on it and no steering aparently, the water police could not get us far enough away, but seriously what the hell was the skipper doing steaming towards a bloody cyclone, surely he reports back to somebody, and somebody reports to somebody higher, they are also the people who need to be dealt with personally, not only as a cooperation. i would have thought port of brisbane harbor masters or someone would have been in touch with the skipper of this vessel also. if not , why not.i believe this is a test book example that the dollar is mightier than people's lives, the enviroment, and what ever else, what have we come to.

[dhess]

We should form a lynch mob catch the captain and use him for cubing for sharks. We should then move onto the incompetent, lazy green licking fatcats in the EPA and do the same.

Australia should dump an equivalent ammount of ammonium nitrate and oil in Honk Kongs drinking water supply and see how they like it.

What really pisses me off is its usually some greedy foreigner who has no regard for the safety of our marine ecosystems and will happily take stupid risks just to make an extra buck or get a feed of undersized fish.

[dhess]

Just fired off a couple of emails to the EPA ministerSustainability@ministerial.qld.gov.au and moreton.bay@epa.qld.gov.au

that went something like this:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to commend the EPA on its gross incompetence relating to mobilising an adequate response to the ammonium nitrate and fuel oil spill.

Less than two weeks after implementing green zones it has become apparent that the EPA has already failed miserably in protecting them.

Thank god we don't have all of those destructive, environment raping recreational anglers around to make matters worse.

Bravo, Give yourseleves a pat on the back. You'v really earned it this time.

Kindest Regards,

dhess

I encourage everyone else to flood their inboxes so they know how much we love them.

[planetfonz]

dhess wrote:

We should form a lynch mob catch the fucktard captain and use him for cubing for sharks. We should then move onto the incompetent, lazy green licking fatcats in the EPA and do the same.

Australia should dump an equivalent ammount of ammonium nitrate and oil in Honk Kongs drinking water supply and see how they like it.

What really pisses me off is its usually some greedy foreigner who has no regard for the safety of our marine ecosystems and will happily take stupid risks just to make an extra buck or get a feed of undersized fish.

i know i'll probably get attacked but here goes - not discounting your anger which of course is completely natural.. its a hong kong registered ship and more than likely crewed with cheap indonesians or burmese crew. it can't be a thing where we aim anger at a country. the simple thing is the ship is able to withstand conditions like this under an experienced skipper, of which the captain is. anger should be aimed at our own laws regarding the allowance of ships to sail from port in these conditions. accidents unfortunately do happen. the understatement of the damage to the ship caused the slowness of reaction times. things would have been very different if it happened nearer the mouth of the river. with so many oil refineries there is defintely things in place for this. this time however it just didn't work. theres way to many variants here to be lynching etc etc ..

[dhess]

Yeah yeah I know:angry:

I still think the captain should be tortured at the very least. Likewise any local officials that are responsible should be crucified.