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Fears ease that cargo vessel will go aground
The crew of a bulk cargo ship adrift off the Aleutian Islands regained control of the vessel Friday afternoon, lessening the risk that it would run aground this morning, officials said. The 738-foot Golden Seas, owned by Greece-based Allseas Marine, was adrift in stormy seas for roughly 12 hours, starting at about 4 a.m. Friday, according to the Coast Guard.
The ship isn't safe yet -- it remains on limited engine power, and the crew was able to regain control only after the weather calmed on Friday afternoon. The weather is expected to worsen today and Sunday.
On Friday, the Liberia-flagged ship carrying a load of canola seed and thousands of gallons of fuel was drifting toward Atka Island amid high winds and heavy seas. If the ship remained adrift through the night, state officials predicted it would likely run aground this morning, long before the expected arrival of rescue vessels capable of towing the ship to safety.
Visibly relieved Coast Guard, state and company officials said Friday they would be monitoring the vessel through the night.
But the Golden Seas emergency is another black mark for the region's busy trade route, used by thousands of commercial ships per year traveling between North America and Asia. In the past two decades, two large commercial ships, the Selendang Ayu in 2004, and the Kuroshima in 1997, ran aground in the Aleutians, spilling a combined 390,000 gallons of fuel oil and diesel.
On Friday, some Alaska activists renewed their call for state and federal officials to improve the spill-response capability in the region. Some of them said they have petitioned the Coast Guard or the state for years to station an ocean-going rescue tug along the shipping route.
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"This should be yet another wake-up call," said Rick Steiner, an Anchorage ocean activist and oil-spill specialist. Steiner began asking for an Aleutians rescue tug in 1995, he said.
The shipping industry should be on the hook to pay for spill response and prevention measures in the region, said Whit Sheard, an attorney for Oceana, a marine conservation group.
CLOSE CALL
At about 4:30 p.m. Friday, the Coast Guard said the weather had improved and the Golden Seas was moving northeast, away from shore, at about 4 miles an hour. The ship then had drifted to about 24 miles from shore.
The Coast Guard sent a cutter, a C-130 plane and helicopters to the troubled ship on Friday. The cutter left from Dutch Harbor, about 400 miles away. It isn't expected to arrive until Sunday afternoon.
A faster vessel is on the way. O'Brien's Response Management, a private firm working for Allseas, hired a tug boat stationed in Dutch Harbor that Shell Oil is using to tow a drilling ship it plans to keep on standby if the company drills for oil in Arctic waters next summer, Coast Guard and oil company officials said.
The tug, called the Tor Viking, set out for sea Friday evening and was expected to arrive at the ship at about noon today. It is carrying an emergency towing system that state regulators staged in Dutch Harbor after the Selendang Ayu spill.
WHAT WENT WRONG
The crew of the Golden Seas reported that the turbocharger on the ship's single-propulsion engine failed and it could not be repaired at sea, the Coast Guard said.
The engine could turn the ship's propeller, but not with enough power to hold the vessel's position or make headway in the rough seas the ship was enduring. That changed when the weather improved later Friday.
The ship is carrying a cargo of rapeseed, used to make canola oil, and it had more than 450,000 gallons of fuel oil and 11,748 gallons of diesel fuel, the Coast Guard said.
The areas threatened if the ship runs aground include several islands north of Atka and the shoreline of Atka, including Korovin Bay and Korovin Bay, which are part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
Threatened or endangered species in the area include Steller's eiders and northern sea otters and endangered Steller sea lions. Several species of sea ducks and sea birds are also common on the north shore of Atka at this time of year, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
SHIPPING HISTORY
The Golden Seas is registered out of Liberia and owned by AllSeas, the Coast Guard said. It was headed from Vancouver to the United Arab Emirates, Coast Guard petty officer David Mosley said. Sailing through the Aleutians is the most direct route between North America and Asia, given the earth's curvature.
The amount of shipping in the remote, stormy area is roughly double the amount of traffic that comes into Alaska ports, according to recent studies.
DEC spill-response coordinator Gary Folley said Friday it's ironic that the Golden Seas emergency happened just a few days before the sixth anniversary of the Selendang Ayu spill.
On Dec. 8, 2004, the Malaysia-flagged freighter ran aground and broke apart on the north side of Unalaska Island, also in the Aleutians. Six of the crew members died, about 350,000 gallons of bunker fuel and diesel spilled and 66,000 tons of soybeans were lost.
The men died when a rogue wave crashed into the Coast Guard helicopter that had been hoisting the men from the freighter. The Jayhawk fell into the sea, but its crew was later rescued.
Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/12/03/1586105/cargo-ship-reported-adrift-off.html#ixzz197hGPac2
The ship isn't safe yet -- it remains on limited engine power, and the crew was able to regain control only after the weather calmed on Friday afternoon. The weather is expected to worsen today and Sunday.
On Friday, the Liberia-flagged ship carrying a load of canola seed and thousands of gallons of fuel was drifting toward Atka Island amid high winds and heavy seas. If the ship remained adrift through the night, state officials predicted it would likely run aground this morning, long before the expected arrival of rescue vessels capable of towing the ship to safety.
Visibly relieved Coast Guard, state and company officials said Friday they would be monitoring the vessel through the night.
But the Golden Seas emergency is another black mark for the region's busy trade route, used by thousands of commercial ships per year traveling between North America and Asia. In the past two decades, two large commercial ships, the Selendang Ayu in 2004, and the Kuroshima in 1997, ran aground in the Aleutians, spilling a combined 390,000 gallons of fuel oil and diesel.
On Friday, some Alaska activists renewed their call for state and federal officials to improve the spill-response capability in the region. Some of them said they have petitioned the Coast Guard or the state for years to station an ocean-going rescue tug along the shipping route.
ADVERTISEMENT
"This should be yet another wake-up call," said Rick Steiner, an Anchorage ocean activist and oil-spill specialist. Steiner began asking for an Aleutians rescue tug in 1995, he said.
The shipping industry should be on the hook to pay for spill response and prevention measures in the region, said Whit Sheard, an attorney for Oceana, a marine conservation group.
CLOSE CALL
At about 4:30 p.m. Friday, the Coast Guard said the weather had improved and the Golden Seas was moving northeast, away from shore, at about 4 miles an hour. The ship then had drifted to about 24 miles from shore.
The Coast Guard sent a cutter, a C-130 plane and helicopters to the troubled ship on Friday. The cutter left from Dutch Harbor, about 400 miles away. It isn't expected to arrive until Sunday afternoon.
A faster vessel is on the way. O'Brien's Response Management, a private firm working for Allseas, hired a tug boat stationed in Dutch Harbor that Shell Oil is using to tow a drilling ship it plans to keep on standby if the company drills for oil in Arctic waters next summer, Coast Guard and oil company officials said.
The tug, called the Tor Viking, set out for sea Friday evening and was expected to arrive at the ship at about noon today. It is carrying an emergency towing system that state regulators staged in Dutch Harbor after the Selendang Ayu spill.
WHAT WENT WRONG
The crew of the Golden Seas reported that the turbocharger on the ship's single-propulsion engine failed and it could not be repaired at sea, the Coast Guard said.
The engine could turn the ship's propeller, but not with enough power to hold the vessel's position or make headway in the rough seas the ship was enduring. That changed when the weather improved later Friday.
The ship is carrying a cargo of rapeseed, used to make canola oil, and it had more than 450,000 gallons of fuel oil and 11,748 gallons of diesel fuel, the Coast Guard said.
The areas threatened if the ship runs aground include several islands north of Atka and the shoreline of Atka, including Korovin Bay and Korovin Bay, which are part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
Threatened or endangered species in the area include Steller's eiders and northern sea otters and endangered Steller sea lions. Several species of sea ducks and sea birds are also common on the north shore of Atka at this time of year, according to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
SHIPPING HISTORY
The Golden Seas is registered out of Liberia and owned by AllSeas, the Coast Guard said. It was headed from Vancouver to the United Arab Emirates, Coast Guard petty officer David Mosley said. Sailing through the Aleutians is the most direct route between North America and Asia, given the earth's curvature.
The amount of shipping in the remote, stormy area is roughly double the amount of traffic that comes into Alaska ports, according to recent studies.
DEC spill-response coordinator Gary Folley said Friday it's ironic that the Golden Seas emergency happened just a few days before the sixth anniversary of the Selendang Ayu spill.
On Dec. 8, 2004, the Malaysia-flagged freighter ran aground and broke apart on the north side of Unalaska Island, also in the Aleutians. Six of the crew members died, about 350,000 gallons of bunker fuel and diesel spilled and 66,000 tons of soybeans were lost.
The men died when a rogue wave crashed into the Coast Guard helicopter that had been hoisting the men from the freighter. The Jayhawk fell into the sea, but its crew was later rescued.
Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/12/03/1586105/cargo-ship-reported-adrift-off.html#ixzz197hGPac2
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