High Profile Oil Spill off of Ibiza Means More Trouble for Merchant Mariners

Maritime workers near the Balearic island of Ibiza are cleaning up three local hot spots after inspectors discovered a sunken merchant ship which had leaked ten tons of fuel into the waters earlier this week. The beaches that the spills have effected are tourist attractions.

The ship, Don Pedro, was transporting 150 tons of fuel (gasoline?) and 50 of diesel fuel from Ibiza to the eastern Spanish city of Valencia when it sunk on Wednesday after it hit some rocks. Inspectors discovered the leak, which is currently 3.5 miles long by half a mile wide, development Minister Magdalena Alvarez said in a press conference on Thursday.

Emergency services said they had rescued 20 crew members from the Don Pedro roll-on/roll-off cargo ferry after it rammed a small promontory just off Ibiza in the early hours. Two ships were at the site and floating dams were to be set up to try to minimise the impact of the leak, that was near the coast, the rescue services said in a statement.

This small oil spill will be damaging to the maritime industry although it pales in comparison to some of the past oil related catastrophes because this incident will have less environmental impact. This spill has become worldwide news because it has landed in the middle of a tourist attraction. Pollution has been a hot topic for many years now, starting with the Exxon Valdez, then the spill of of the Galapagos Islands, and the cover-up of oily discharge by OSG employees. This spill is just going to add more fuel to the fire, empowering environmental groups that would like to see us shut down. Should we expect tighter regulations in the future... can it get any worse?

Polluting the High Seas- another example to learn from

It seems we as a community still have some things to learn. Such as that horrible lesson that we were taught when the Valdez grounded on Bligh reef. Most people who are sailing are well aware of the consequences we face in today's world. Pollution is a hot topic- one that can get Mariners put behind bars.

Now I am about as far from a crazy leftwing environmentalist as you can get- but I do respect the environment and I do care what happens to our world- I personally would not pollute the water on purpose... but I was taught to be that way- so maybe it is a generational thing. Maybe the oldtimers think they can do it and that they might save a buck or two and land a bigger bonus from the home office. Maybe.

I really doubt that though.

In this new case, two Cheif Engineers pleaded guilty to polluting the ocean using 'magic pipes' to bypass the oily water separator and the storage tanks- dumping massive amounts of oil and bilge waste into the water. New reports say that the bypass pipes had been discovered by the Coast Guard during a routine inspection.

PGM (Pacific Gulf Marine) pleaded guilty to charges related to its role in deliberately discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil-contaminated bilge waste from four of its giant car-carrier ships used to transport vehicles, including the Tanabata and Fidelio. The shipping company was sentenced on Jan. 24, 2007, to pay $1 million criminal fines and $500,000 in community service, and serve three years of probation under the terms of an environmental compliance plan which will be audited by a court-appointed monitor.

In the old days, companies put pressure on the crew to 'get rid of it' when it came to the costly disposal of waste. I don't know if Pacific Gulf Marine would encourage that type of behavior even if it would save them money in the long haul. I seriously doubt they would. I really don't know why the Engineers went to so much trouble, illegally dumping and faking log entries unless there was some reward for doing so. However, with the stiff penalities one would think that it would be strongly discouraged behavior. I hope that this serves as another reminder to mariners out there who have thought about trying to save the company a few bucks.

It isn't worth jail time.