Ship hit Astrolabe Reef, Tauranga

[johnMi 2]

I reckon they'll do it, with maybe losing another 50-100 tonnes at the most

Let's hope so

[Fogg 427]

I'm amazed that those container stacks have remained bolted together at that angle of heel:

 

 

Question: Why don't they blow it up? Let the NZ armed services could use it for missile/torpedo target practise with the aim of burning off the whole thing including the majority of oil?

 

I suppose someone better informed will say because the pollution caused would be worse?

 

But it's a fun idea isn't it?

[Guest]

Tried that with the Torrey Canyon AC.....didn't work

[Fogg 427]

Yeah but that was 40+ years ago. Surely today's technology is capable of vapourising the Reena which is way smaller. I reckon we should ask the yanks if we could buy a couple of their finest air-to-surface missiles and a handful of their noisiest ship-busting torpedoes. On a sale-or-return basis i.e. if they don't work we don't pay for them but if they do, we do.

 

Deal?

[grant 40]

yanks tried as well, New Carrisa, went aground in 1999, spectacular fail

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Carissa

 

they even used a torpedo or two

[Guest]

Don' think we can afford bullets, let alone missiles.

[Chewing Gum 17]

Grant - that is really interesting. Shows how difficult a shipwreck is to deal with even with US resources. People criticising govt response should read that article. Hopefully this will be a wake up call so we can put in place measures to prevent a more major spill in the future.

[grant 40]

interesting reading the wiki entry it sounded like a great sucess, I have read another report that said burning took away all the lighter parts of the oil and left a sludge that was far worse to deal with than before they started.

 

also the dispoal at sea does sound a little like John Clarke... " they towed it outside the environment..."

[SloopJohnB 322]

we could get the french to test a little explosive device, that should vaporize the thing.

[PaulR 3]

Now If we had a strike wing of jets, they would just love a mission like this, stealth approaches through the Hole in Wall,

= Mach 4 "Bombs away"

Victory rolls past the mount into Turanga Harbour.

Perhaps we should sell seats on the Mount for the Air Display.

 

Wot?? Aunty Helen stopped all the fun

[Guest]

Oh I like Pauls idea. I have had practice doing that, sure it was only a baby Cessna and it was only easter eggs we were bombing people camping at Tawharanui with but in NZ terms I think I'd have more bombing experience than many in the Air Force :)

 

I think it would take more than a dozen marshmallow easter eggs though. We got an terrorists with some high explosive or does anyone know where the French Rugby team are staying

[Fogg 427]

we could get the french to test a little explosive device, that should vaporize the thing.

 

That's the one.

[wheels 543]

we could get the french to test a little explosive device, that should vaporize the thing.

So we go from Black beaches to Glass beaches that glow in the Dark.

[Bogan 8]

Notice that that was considered a significant incident losing about 300 tonnes of oil. The Rena has already lost more than that.

[too_tall 15]

They were really very unthoughtful running that boat into a rock out there. Would have been far easier to do it properly and place it somewhere far easier to salvage it.

[PaulR 3]

Handy accommodation, bars and good food tossed in.

[Marshy 30]

But i hear they wanted seaviews...

[idlerboat 116]

Hope it all works out well for you guys.....I do have a problem with it being normalised.....

That is to say...."Oh it does happen from time to time"

What we see on the beaches is visualy distressing....but the longer term effects in the local marine enviroment are a little harder to quantify. Dont mean to be a party pooper, but I would just hate there to be a lessening of anger on the part of the local people....because it seems like it is sorted.

The ocean is vast and has an ability to hide its changes from us. It is a delusion of the highest order to think that it just goes away..."out of sight out of mind"

We have no choice but to accept that we do and will continue to have an increasing affect on our (well not really ours) enviroment.

To pretend that we are somehow "unlinked" with what happens with our enviroment is indeed a fools world. That world is only ours.

I hope that you guys are pissed off to the highest degree AND stay that way ! That is your patch, and if you dont protect it, then nobody else will. Given that so many other patches of the planet dont have the ability for people to protect, it makes it doubly important. A bit like carbon taxes....who starts ?

In essence its the same thing...just one little visual but tiny patch of beach on a global scale. A boat registed by convienince and a finacial cost that will ultimately be born by NZ. A couple of weeks of telly and its gone.

So what then ? the degradation dosnt go away.

Why is this linked to carbon taxes ?

 

If you stop ...think....it isnt so differant.

 

You would after this demand a much greater care for your coast line. You would also hope that this same care applies to other nations coast lines, after all, the ocean dosnt have human boundries...the crap that happens elsewhere effects us all.

You will examine the situation...make changes...AT GREAT COST...to your patch. There is no guarentee and very little chance that the rest of the world will follow...WHY ?

 

But it wont stop you making those changes.

 

Your changes will make bugger all differance to the global situation, but you will still make them. It will cost a heap...but you will still make them.

AND you will say.." we do this with the hope that other nations will follow our lead for the betterment of our future..."

 

Funny thing is...you have done it before...and it made a huge differance....

[Guest]

Hear hear Idlerboat, When we look about the universe its really apparent that life is an extremely rare event on a galactic scale at least. That ,in my opinion, makes every lifeform incredibly valuable. I'm dismayed at the miniscule limit the insurers have in regard to environmental damages. Time for the pollies to get their already jerking knees jerking more.

[Atom Ant 0]

Jerking is indeed what some pollies are trying to do by attempting to turn this into an election issue. My cynicism increases when I see/hear this. Specificaslly Labour for trying to blame National for a Labour policy, but then they've got nothing to offer the country so they are just trying to score points instead of being useful - which they could largely achieve by shutting up and staying away.

 

I find it difficult to understand why so often people view us (humans) as visitors to the environment when in fact we are part of it. Not necessarily a good part of it, but a part of it nonetheless.

 

Humans at all levels have excelled at thinking that caring for the environment in which we live (humans and all other life) is important but that it's someone elses issue to worry about.

 

It's ironic that people will be up in arms about this, but still do very little personally to protect the environment in which they, their children, and grandchildren live. It isn't hard to do even a little bit towards keeping it clean.

 

But you're right IB, I think all the parties involved in the creation of this environmental disaster are ducking for cover and will walk away relatively unscathed and leave the local people to suffer the consequences and deal with the long lingering effects. Grrrrrrrr