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From: WADE DOAK
_: 5
Date: 04-08-10
Time: 12:05
Black Death Strikes New Zealand
by Wade Doak
National disasters from earthquake, volcano, fire or flood are beyond human control. But the prospect of black tides smothering our coastline, in a country where tourism is the major industry and so many species are endangered, should unite big business and greens.
The risk of a major oil spill on the New Zealand coast has never been greater. Just because we have gotten away with it to date, it would be foolish to project this on to the future. As tankers get older their chances of being wrecked increase. The Institute of London Underwriters has figures that show more than 80 per cent of insurance losses have involved ships built more than l5 years ago. These days two thirds of the world tanker fleet is over ten years old. The Braer, wrecked in the Shetlands in January 1998 after her engines failed, was built in l975. British politicians are now calling for a ban on tankers more than l5 years old and an insistence on double hulled vessels, as in the U.S.A.Since the sinking of the Erika in December 1999,when ten thousand tons of fuel oil hit the coast of Brittany, France has threatened to go it alone and ban all single hull tankers.The European Commission is proposing to phase in a ban over a decade, beginning in 2005. By the year 2015 all tankers sailing in European waters will have to have double hulls.The U.S.A. adopted a similar ban in 1990 following the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.
Braer was a Liberian-registered vessel. Her crew abandoned her when water entered fuel tanks, stopping her engines as she was passing through a 35 kilometre channel in a storm. There was nobody aboard to receive the salvage tug’s towline and she was driven ashore. With tanker age the risks of such mechanical failure increase and break downs of defective machinery occur more frequently.
Late in 1998 the Austral Achiever had a near disaster out by the Poor Knights Islands, 28 k off the Northland coast. An engine room fire broke out. Fortunately the weather was fine and it was possible to get aid to her from onshore. Only a small spill occurred. But Whangarei Harbour Master, Captain Peter Wavish, admitted it could have been a very different story: “If there had been a northeast gale or a cyclone Bola going through at the time we could have been in big trouble”.
An average of three tankers visit Marsden Point each week. As the risk of failure increases with their age, we play Russian Roulette with our coast - sooner or later trouble will coincide with bad weather.
Engraved on the memory of many Tutukaka coast residents will be the last shipping disaster in this area. In September 1975 the freighter Bougainville caught on fire in an easterly gale she dropped anchor near the Elizabeth Reef, off Wananaki. Her stern glowing cherry red out in the grey dawn, battered by huge seas, she hung there while her crew abandoned ship with tragic loss of life. Helpless I stood on a clifftop clad in my wetsuit with other would-be rescuers while an Orion and helicopter buzzed overhead and people died.
In neither a more recent Spanish tanker disaster nor with the Shetland oil spill, did we hear of the vessels using anchors to avoid being wrecked. Can these huge vessels use this emergency method to avoid disaster?
I have tried to create a scenario for a tanker aground on the New Zealand coast - the likeliest danger zone is in Northland- and the prospect scares me witless! Engine failure or navigation error must be the greatest risks in this exceptionally vulnerable area. So many questions arise: do we have salvage tugs capable of rescuing a super tanker in a storm? Where are the barges that could offload the oil in a disaster? The oil spill gear installed at Marsden Point by the Ministry of Transport could only handle a spill of 5 or 6 tonnes in ideal conditions - a mere puddle, as might occur if an offloading pipe were to burst.
I suspect that New Zealand has virtually no resources to handle a super tanker disaster on our coast. The consequences would be horrendous along Northland’s eastern seaboard which is characterised by a series of mangrove estuaries where the ultra sensitive intertidal zone is maximal. The inshore drift is northward. I envisage a slick spreading up the Tutukaka coast from the impact point, devastating Ngunguru, Wananaki, Whangururu - and heading towards the Bay of Islands.
If the impact was out at our precious Poor Knights, New Zealand’s Barrier Reef equivalent, it would endanger seabirds for which those islands are the only nesting ground in the world - birds that feed in the Arctic. Out at the Knights the current runs south towards Hauraki Gulf and Auckland. But strong onshore winds would drive the black death inshore towards Whangarei Harbour, Waipu and Leigh Marine Reserve.
In the bleak Shetlands we heard of aerosol contamination of livestock and pastures; of people forced to evacuate their homes and breathe with masks - I shudder to think of the consequences in Northland where the coastal population is much higher - whole settlements would have to be evacuated with the potential of looting and massive economic hurt - while coastal farms and forests would suffer disastrously.
Clearly we should aim at disaster prevention, with the most rigorous and stringent of safety measures, similar to those devised for aviation and the nuclear industry. Safety consultants should draw up a systematic analysis of risk, covering the operation of ships, the training of crews for emergency, and all major hazards. Navigation risks in vulnerable areas should be thoroughly analysed and radar systems installed equivalent to those at airports. In Britain radar surveillance systems are being urged.
Government officers should inspect each tanker at its point of departure for New Zealand, rather than when it arrives here,as at present, issuing each tanker with a certificate of safety management, as do the Norwegians.
In setting up these measures the public should be made fully aware of the costs incurred - we need to be involved. If it means adding a few cents per litre to the price of fossil fuel - that is the true cost of landing it on our shores. No New Zealander can opt out of responsibility for avoiding the black death - in today’s world we’re all oil-based molecular assemblies.
But then, if we had an offshore drilling disaster in our stormy latitudes, the impact is beyond my imaginings…
(In a box)
The Oil Dispersant Debate
Oil dispersants, used to treat tanker disasters, are a matter for debate amongst scientists. A dispute has developed as to whether it is better to use dispersants to save some few seabirds and marine mammals, while increasing the potential damage to fish, invertebrates and plants. To sink an oil spill it takes a volume of dispersant equivalent to l0% of the oil slick. In the case of the Braer it would have required 8 l/2 thousand tonnes of dispersant - logistically absurd.
Oil dispersants are proprietary chemicals consisting of a surfactant to bind the oil to water and a solvent to spread it through the sea. Each manufacturer jealously protects the secrecy of ingredients used and claims superior results.
Some components of dispersants are harmful to humans and spray operators are advised to wear protective clothing and masks. The Shetland’s disaster underlined the consequence to human health when dispersants were swept into the air in gale conditions and carried into coastal communities.
New Zealanders should demand to know the ingredients of dispersants at present on hand for the oil spill cleanups at Marsden Point and New Plymouth - and their environmental impact. As consumers we have established these rights at the super market - sufficient precedent for protection from chemicals destined to be sprayed in our immediate environment.
Last changed: 23-Jul-2011