A major oil spill has been reported in Alaska yet again. And, (surprise surprise!), it’s near a sensitive wildlife refuge. Why is this? Is it because Alaska has so many wild life refuges, or is it because God has some sick, perverted, twisted sense of humor?
The ship was loaded with 483,000 gallons of heavy bulk fuel and 21,000 gallons of diesel fuel.
Though small compared to the Exxon Valdez spill, this one looks like it’s the largest in Alaska since then, just in time for the Christmas season.
Officials are hoping that rough seas could help break up some of the oil and disperse it to the open sea, because, of course, the fish in the open sea are already so fucking polluted that, well hey, what’s the difference anyway?
Side note: At the present time, all beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River are now classified by the Canadian Government as ‘toxic waste’, and every one of them have been diagnosed with various forms of cancer.
Conservation officials will be working with the Department of Fish and Game to determine potential threats to wildlife in this matter.
“The fuel we’re dealing with is No. 6 fuel oil. It’s a very dense, viscous oil and it’s not easy to clean up. This is particularly persistent. It’s high viscosity and it tends to remain on the surface. It’s not good stuff.” DEC spokeswoman Lynda Giguere said. (Well, isn’t that just dandy. Wouldn’t expect it to be any different, now, would we?).
Of course, adding to God’s warped, cosmic sense of humor, the ship was carrying soybeans, bound, no doubt for the dinner plates of those damn tofu-totting, Grateful Dead loving, Alaskan vegetarian, hippie, enviornmentalists. Is that irony, or what?
Now for some factoid stuff.
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The United States uses about 700 million gallons of oil every day.
The world uses nearly 3 billion gallons each day.
The largest spill in the United States so far was the Exxon Valdez spill into Prince William Sound, Alaska in March 1989. An oil tanker ran aground to cause this spill of almost 11 million gallons of crude oil. While this was a big spill, it was actually only a small fraction--less than 2 percent--of what the United States uses in 1 day!
There have been dozens of oil spills during the last 35 years. Some of the worst include:
January 2000: A ruptured pipeline spewed about 340,000 gallons of heavy oil into Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.
December 1999: The Erika spilled 13,000 tons of heavy diesel oil off the coast of Brittany.
February 1996: The Sea Empress spilled about 72,000 tons of crude oil near the port of Milford Haven in Wales.
January 1993: The Braer grounded off the Shetland Islands spilling 85,000 tons.
December 1992: A ship called the Aegean Sea spilled 80,000 tons of crude near the port of La Coruna in Spain.
May 1991: The ABT Summer leaked oil after an explosion off Angola spilling 260,000 tonnes.
April 1991: The Haven spilled more than 50,000 tons of oil off Genoa in Italy.
January 1991: Iraq released about 460 million gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War.
March 1989: The Exxon Valdez is grounded and spilled 38,800 tons of crude oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska - the worst spill in US history.
August 1983: Fire broke out on the the Castillo de Bellver and its cargo of 252,000 tonnes of oil burnt.
1979: The Atlantic Empress spilled 160,000 tons off Tobago.
1978: Wrecked tanker Amoco Cadiz spilled 220,000 tons gallons off the Brittany coast.
March 1967: The Torrey Canyon spilled 119,000 tons of crude off the Isles of Scilly in the UK.
Source BBC World News.