Ship carrying 450 tonnes of fuel adrift off B.C. coast

[Little Star]

A 135-metre-long bulk carrier with bunker and diesel fuel on board has lost power and is drifting off the B.C. coast toward Haida Gwaii.

The Canadian Coast Guard received a call about the vessel at about 11 p.m. Thursday night.

The ship, which had been travelling from Everett, Wash., to Russia, is carrying 400 tonnes of bunker fuel and 50 tonnes of diesel fuel, Ron MacDougall, Acting Sub-lieutenant with the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria, said on Friday.

The vessel has lost power and is about 14 kilometres from land, Acting Sub.-Lt. MacDougall said.

Weather on the scene is “severe”, with 50-knot winds and seven-metre seas, but is expected to ease this morning, he added.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/ship-carrying-450-tonnes-of-fuel-adrift-off-bc-coast/article21147767/

[valerief]

1. It's a shame we can't get a clean form of power, something

that we actually WANT to spill, something that maybe comes from something shiny and approximately 93 million miles away from us.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. gCaptain link:

http://gcaptain.com/cargo-ship-adrift-british-columbia-sparking-fears-grounding/

The Canadian Coast Guard and commercial vessels are responding to an adrift cargo ship off the remote coast of British Columbia.

Canada’s CBC reports that the Russian cargo ship MV Simushir has lost power and is adrift approximately 25 kilometers off Tasu Sound and fears are that the ship may run aground.

A Canadian Coast Guard helicopter has been dispatched to the scene to medevac the ship’s captain, who is injured, the report says. A coast guard ship and commercial tugboats are currently enroute to the scene but are not expected to arrive on scene for several hours.

A statement from the Council of the Haida Nation, which overseas the Haida Gwaii archipelago, has issued an emergency alert fearing the worst, that the ship could hit the coast before help arrives.

“The Haida Nation’s worst fear is coming true,” said President of the Haida Nation kil tlaats ’gaa Peter Lantin. “Our priority is to minimize the impact on our homeland and get our people on-site to start dealing with the grounding. We’ll deal with the politics of the situation later.”

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