Written by Peter Pijpelink
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Province to recover sunken tanker
After a diesel tanker truck slid off a barge last summer and sank 350 metres in a B.C. coast whale refuge, experts were surprised to find it landed upright and apparently intact on the sea floor.
Now they will try to bring it back up the same way, before the orcas return this summer.
The B.C. and federal governments have announced plans to recover some of the 11 pieces of logging equipment that fell from the barge into Robson Bight on Aug. 20, 2007.
The fuel truck, which had been expected to implode due to the water pressure, will be the first priority.
“As with any salvage operation, there will be risks involved but we want to retrieve the equipment as soon as possible while minimizing potential impacts to orcas and other wildlife,” said B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner, announcing the plan along with federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn.
Government officials initially rejected calls for salvage efforts, believing the 14 km fuel slick that formed at the time of the sinking was a sign that most of the fuel had already escaped.
Once that fuel evaporated with no apparent ill effects to whales, the B.C.-based Living Oceans Society and Greenpeace Canada began fundraising to send a mini-sub down for a look.
Government officials came on board, and in December the sub’s video showed the tanker, an ambulance, a D8 Cat and other vehicles apparently intact.
Ocean salvage experts were called in and their assessment convinced governments that the risk of further fuel release is not enough to give up the project.
“We are delighted that this ticking time bomb will be removed, and we are hopeful that this happens before the whales return to Robson Bight this summer,” said Jennifer Lash, executive director of the Living Oceans Society.
Lash said the initial spill likely came from fuel or hydraulic oil released when some of the vehicles crashed together on the tilting barge.
The video suggests much of the fuel and oil may still be on board, where corrosion would eventually cause it to spill out.
Robson Bight Ecological Reserve is in Johnstone Strait, between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
It is a summer feeding ground for B.C.’s northern resident orcas, and site of a rubbing beach where the whales rub themselves on the rocky bottom for reasons not yet understood.
It is supposed to be off-limits to shipping, but the barge owned by Ted LeRoy Trucking of Chemainus was apparently inside the area when the accident occurred.
The company was held responsible for the costs of cleanup and salvage, but it has since declared bankruptcy.
• Video of the submerged equipment can be seen on the environment ministry website at www.env.gov.bc.ca/pac/videos/bpenner/2008/robson_bight/.
source and (c)
By Tom Fletcher - Ladysmith Chronicle - April 29, 2008