Sealing ship rescue operation costs $3.4 million

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=7982193b-9b5e-4a4b-b676-70e0266a47a9&k=20358

Sealing ship rescue operation costs $3.4 million
Jack Branswell and Ken Meaney, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, July 27

A Canadian Coast Guard operation last spring to rescue 100 ice-stranded sealing ships off the coast of Newfoundland cost the federal government at least $3.4 million.

A Department of Fisheries report obtained by CanWest News Service details the month-long operation to free the vessels, which got stuck in thick ice and needed icebreakers and towing ships to move them into open waters.

The Coast Guard, which is part of Fisheries Department, had budgeted $528,000 for supporting sealing operations this year.

Included in the price tag was the cost of having 10 of the Coast Guard ships involved in the rescue and helicopter support.

Close to half of the total amount came in fuel charges, which amounted to $1.9 million. The other major charge was for salary, which cost just over $1 million.

But Paul Watson from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which in the past has tried to block the hunt, disputed the government figures. He thinks they would have been considerably higher.

FULL story at link.

[1620rock]

1. Let em sink. eom