Fisherman clash with police

French police guarded the ministry from angry fishermen

French fishermen have clashed with police in Paris as they stepped up protests over rising fuel costs.

Protesters threw flares and police fired tear gas outside the agriculture ministry, where Minister Michel Barnier was meeting fishing unions.

Ferry traffic with the UK has also ground to a halt, with fishing fleets blockading several French ports.

Meanwhile, a major strike against President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reforms is set to begin.

Workers are due to walk out for 36 hours, starting on Wednesday evening, to protest against government plans to make people work 41 years, rather then the current 40, before being able to draw a full pension.

Price cap

The fishermen's blockade began more than a week ago, and was originally confined to a few ports like La Rochelle on the west coast.

But it spread until, on Wednesday, Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk on the north coast, all serving cross-Channel ferry services to Britain, were isolated by a ring of fishing boats.

The fishermen say rapidly rising prices for diesel threaten them with bankruptcy. They are demanding a greater subsidy from the government, in effect putting a cap on prices.

In January the government approved an aid package for fishermen worth 310m euros (£248m) over three years.

Mr Barnier is seeking approval from the EU commission to give state aid to the sector.

But fishermen say that agreement is redundant, since fuel has become 30% more expensive since the start of the year.

As the minister met union representatives in Paris on Wednesday, as many as 200 fishermen gathered outside.

Dozens of flares were thrown, injuring up to four policemen, according to reports.

Riot police surrounded the building and responded with tear gas.

Sarkozy confident

The fishermen's protest came as the government is facing industrial action from various sectors.

French teachers say cuts in numbers affect quality

Port workers plan a strike for Thursday against privatisation - which is likely to exacerbate the problems caused by the fishing blockade.

Thursday will also see major action by rail, postal, utility and other public sector workers across France.

They are protesting against plans to extend the retirement age.

It follows a teachers' strike against job cuts last week.

Unions are hoping that a head of steam is building up against Mr Sarkozy's economic reform plans, says BBC correspondent Hugh Schofield in Paris.

But the president has so far made the calculation that most people accept the changes that he has promised, and there is no sign of him backing down, says our correspondent.

--From the BBC

Hole torn in £330m Cunard liner

Repairs are due to be carried out during the night.

A hole has been ripped into the stern of a £300m luxury British cruise liner as it crashed while docking in Malta.

Cunard's Queen Victoria, which was named by the Duchess of Cornwall in Southampton in December, hit the quay at Valletta.

None of the 1,887 passengers onboard was injured in the crash.

"The ship touched the quay as she was berthing and sustained some damage which is now being assessed," said Cunard president Carol Marlow.

The 90,000-ton ship, which Cunard says is its most luxurious, boasts seven restaurants, three swimming pools, a 6,000-book library and a casino.

The previous three Cunard "queens" were named or launched by reigning queens.

Queen Victoria was recently joined by the QE2 and QM2 in Southampton

But the champagne bottle used in Queen Victoria's naming ceremony failed to break against the ship, regarded in maritime circles as bad luck.

Cunard said the damage was being assessed and that repairs were under way and should be completed during the night.

"This will necessitate the cancellation of the call at La Goulette in Tunisia which the ship was due to visit tomorrow but its expected call to Gibraltar on the 17 May will go ahead as planned.

"Cunard will be compensating guests for the disruption to their voyage," a spokesman said.

Queen Victoria will eventually replace the 40-year-old QE2, which is being decommissioned and turned into a floating hotel in Dubai from 2009.

Giant Starfish, Lilly Fields Found in Antarctic Waters

Well-Fed Starfish

March 21, 2008 -- Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.

A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

It's "exciting when you come across a new species," said Chris Jones, a fisheries scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "All the fish people go nuts about that -- but you have to take it with a grain of salt."

The finds must still be reviewed by experts to determine if they are in fact new, said Stu Hanchet, a fisheries scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

But beyond the discovery of new species, scientists said the survey, the most comprehensive to date in the Ross Sea, turned up other surprises.

Hanchet singled out the discovery of "fields" of sea lilies that stretched for hundreds of yards across the ocean floor.

"Some of these big meadows of sea lilies I don't think anybody has seen before," Hanchet said.

Previously only small-scale scientific samplings have been staged in the Ross Sea.

The survey was part of the International Polar Year program involving 23 countries in 11 voyages to survey marine life and habitats around Antarctica. The program hopes to set benchmarks for determining the effects of global warming on Antarctica, researchers said.

Large sea spiders, jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles, huge sea snails and starfish the size of big food platters were found during a 50-day voyage, marine scientist Don Robertson said.

Cold temperatures, a small number of predators, high levels of oxygen in the sea water and even longevity could explain the size of some specimens, said Robertson, a scientist with NIWA.

Robertson added that of the 30,000 specimens collected, hundreds might turn out to be new species.

Stefano Schiaparelli, a mollusk specialist at Italy's National Antarctic Museum in Genoa, said he thought the find would yield at least eight new mollusks.

"This is a new brick in the wall of Antarctic knowledge," Schiaparelli said.

Ray Lilley, Associated Press

From Power Cruising, April 2008

“Many people have written books about chucking their stressful careers and moving aboard a boat. Most of these are amateurish travelogues that fail to inspire or touch the reader. Not so Mary South's THE CURE FOR ANYTHING IS SALT WATER (a quote from Isak Dinesen). This is an honest, open, wonderfully written story of personal discovery, in which the author embraces a relationship with boats and the sea, using her new perspective to reexamine relationships with friends and lovers, past and present.”

Wave Runner

A new propulsion system for boats ditches the diesel

By John Geoghegan Posted 02.22.2008 at 12:18 pm 5 Comments

Going the Distance: Captain Ken-ichi Horie, aboard the Suntory Mermaid II, prepares to travel solo 4,350 miles from Hawaii to Japan on wave power alone. Photo by S. Yamada

This month, 69-year-old Japanese sailor Ken-ichi Horie will attempt to captain the world’s most advanced wave-powered boat 4,350 miles from Hawaii to Japan. If all goes as planned, he’ll set the first Guinness world record for the longest distance traveled by a wave-powered boat and, along the way, show off the greenest nautical propulsion system since the sail.

A simple spring system enables twin fins beneath the bow of the Suntory to move up and down with the incoming waves and pull the boat forward.

At the heart of the record-setting bid is the Suntory Mermaid II, a three-ton catamaran made of recycled aluminum alloy that turns wave energy into thrust. Two fins mounted side by side beneath the bow move up and down with the incoming waves and generate dolphin-like kicks that propel the boat forward. “Waves are a negative factor for a ship—they slow it down,” says Yutaka Terao, an engineering professor at Tokai University in Japan who designed the boat’s propulsion system. “But the Suntory can transform wave energy into propulsive power regardless of where the wave comes from.”

Horie’s latest adventure builds on a storied career of eco-sailing. In 1993 he pedaled a boat 4,660 miles, from Hawaii to Okinawa, setting a world record for the longest distance traveled by a pedal-powered boat.

In 1996 he set the world record for the fastest crossing of the Pacific Ocean in a solar-powered boat. And in 1999, he made a solo trip across the Pacific in a catamaran made from recycled beer barrels.
With a maximum speed of five knots, the Suntory will take two to three months to complete a voyage that diesel-powered craft accomplish in just one. But speed is not the point. The voyage aims to prove that wave propulsion can work under real-world conditions, opening up the technology for commercial applications such as cargo shipping. “Oil is a limited power source,” Horie says, “but there is no limit to waves.”

How to Ride Waves Across the Pacific

Electricity A set of eight solar panels produces 560 watts to run the navigation lights, ham radio, satellite phone and PC.

Propulsion Dual fins set in a side-by-side configuration beneath the bow convert wave energy into a dolphin-like kick that can propel the three-ton boat at five knots.

Stability The fins absorb energy from the rocking of the boat to help make the propulsion more efficient.

Hull The outer hull, only three millimeters thick, is made of a durable recycled-aluminum alloy.

Outboard Motor Reserved for extreme emergencies.

http://www.popsci.com/gear-gadgets/article/2008-02/wave-runner

Ferry sinks in Amazon collision

From the BBC

At least three people have been killed and 20 are reported missing after a ferry sank as a result of a collision with a barge on the Brazilian Amazon.

They collided during the night near Itacoatiara in the jungle state of Amazonas, and most victims seem to have been trapped in cabins on the ferry.

More than 100 people were aboard the ferry at the time, local sources say.

A rescue official said the chances of finding any of the 20 people missing alive were remote.

A navy vessel and a helicopter are being used to help in the search operation.

Lunar eclipse

State fire spokesman Lt Clovis Araujo said a nearby floating police station and a number of small boats had rescued 92 people from the ferry, the Almirante Monteiro.

There were no reports of damage or casualties aboard the heavy goods barge, he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

The confirmed dead, he added, were a woman and two children.

State public safety department spokesman Aguinaldo Rodrigues said that nearly all the survivors appeared to be passengers sleeping in hammocks on the ferry's deck.

While it was too early to establish the cause of the collision, he added, visibility had been "very poor" during the lunar eclipse which began on Wednesday night.

The collision happened on an isolated stretch of the river.

The ferry had a capacity of 165 passengers but was not full at the time of the accident.

An inquiry will now be launched to try to establish the cause of the collision and an initial report is expected within 90 days.

U.S. Can Claim More Arctic Territory

Study: U.S. Territory Extends Farther Into Oil-Rich Region

This map shows the Arctic region, with a highlighted area north of Alaska that was surveyed by NOAA and University of New Hampshire researchers during expeditions in 2003, 2004 and 2007.

Photo: UNH/NOAA

By Dan Shapley

After three years of expeditions to the Arctic, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of New Hampshire have made a discovery that is convenient for U.S. interests in an oil-starved world over-heated up by global warming.

The continental slope of Alaska, they say, extends 100 nautical miles farther under the Arctic Sea than previously thought. That means the U.S. can claim greater territory north of Alaska, should it ever get around to signing the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. That 25-year-old international treaty allows signatories to claim territory based in part on the extent of the continental shelf.

“We found evidence that the foot of the slope was much farther out than we thought,” said Larry Mayer, expedition chief scientist and co-director of the Joint Hydrographic Center at UNH. “That was the big discovery.”

Russia, in its Arctic expeditions last year, during which seamen planted a titanium flag on the sea floor at the North Pole, claimed that its territorial claims were supported by new maps of the continental shelf. Three other countries also can claim territory in the Arctic.

The territory matters now more than ever, as the world's oil supply declines and global warming continues to melt the Arctic. Significant oil reserves are believed to be locked beneath the ice, but as the climate warms, they could become accessible. Last summer, Arctic sea ice retreated to the greatest extent ever recorded.

Coastal nations have sovereign rights over the natural resources of their continental shelf, generally recognized to extend 200 nautical miles out from the coast. The Law of the Sea Convention, now under consideration in the U.S. Senate, provides nations an internationally recognized basis to extend their sea floor resource rights beyond the foot of the continental slope if they meet certain geological criteria backed up by scientific data.

“We now have a better geologic picture of what’s happening in that area of the Arctic,” said NOAA Office of Coast Survey researcher Andy Armstrong, co-chief scientist on the expedition and NOAA co-director of the Joint Hydrographic Center. “These are valuable data for NOAA and the United States, and I’m pleased that we’re making them available for anyone to use.”

UNH/ NOAA

Above: A view of the Arctic sea floor.

UNH/ NOAA

Above: The Chukchi Borderland, a region of the Arctic sea floor north of Alaska.

Shipwreck timber littering coast

From the BBC

Timber from the Ice Prince is washed up on Worthing beach. Enlarge Image

Beaches along the south coast of England will remain closed indefinitely to prevent looters taking away more than 2,000 tonnes of washed-up timber.

The wood, several feet deep on the tide line, is from the Greek-registered Ice Prince which sank about 26 miles (42km) off Dorset after a storm last Tuesday.

Beaches along the Sussex coast from Ferring as far east as Hastings have been littered with the timber.

Dover Coastguard said it was likely more would wash up on Kent's beaches.

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) said its beaches, which were the worst affected, would be out of bounds to the public for the foreseeable future.

The salvage operation is being carried out by contractors authorised by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

See the "wood slick" In pictures: Sinking ship Scavengers' wood warning

WSCC said there were unconfirmed reports of minor damage to sea defences.

It said people taking the wood had become a "serious problem".

A spokesman said: "Lots of people have been turning up, including men in vans taking a load - a significant number of people."

Sussex Police has issued a warning to say removing the timber is unlawful, and if people continue to take the wood, they could be liable to prosecution and arrest under the Merchant Shipping Act.

Safety warnings

The Marine Conservation Society warned on Monday that 313 tonnes of fuel oil remained on the vessel and required urgent removal.

However, it said the fuel tanks appeared at present to be still intact.

"The Ice Prince lies adjacent to a commercial fishery for flatfish species such as plaice and sole, and seabirds such as razorbill and guillemot," said a spokesman.

Worthing beach was closed at the weekend to allow heavy machinery to remove the washed-up cargo.

Wendy Knight, from Worthing Borough Council, said the ship's owners had appointed contractors to find a market for the timber which would then be sold.

Barriers and cordons were being erected along the beach, with "public safety the key element".

Mariners, windsurfers and canoeists have been warned that the floating wood could cause a serious accident.

The 10m (33ft) lengths of sawn wood were put on board in bundles, but sea conditions broke many of them apart.

Another ship strikes Bay Area Bridge

January 12, 2008

Two months after an oil spill blackened San Francisco Bay, authorities Friday were investigating what caused another vessel to hit one of the region's signature bridges.

This time, a 300-foot barge loaded with oil struck a piling that supports the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, but no oil spilled. The accident occurred in dense fog and darkness about 6 p.m. Thursday, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. The crews of two tugboats that were towing the oil barge Cascade passed sobriety tests.

Bay authorities said a spill from the barge, which can carry more than 3 million gallons, might have dwarfed the Nov. 7 accident, when the 900-foot container ship Cosco Busan sideswiped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and dumped 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil into the bay.

That spill killed thousands of seabirds, and the commercial crab season was delayed as heavy, toxic goo blackened beaches throughout the region. Local officials criticized the Coast Guard for initially downplaying the severity of that spill, and some suggested the initial response was too little, too late.

On Thursday evening, Coast Guard boats responded within 17 minutes of receiving word.

From the LA Times
eric.bailey@latimes.com

Father and son saved in Atlantic

A father and son from the Isles of Scilly were rescued after their yacht got into trouble in rough seas while crossing the Atlantic.

Peter Kyne, 48, called for help after the yacht Spam lost its mast and started taking in water about 750m (1,207km) from the Caribbean.

The yacht was on the same route as the ARC race, and a nearby boat responded to a mayday call.

Mr Kyne, his son Alan, 17, and another man, 33, were all helped to safety.

The yacht lost its mast and started taking in water after developing holes in strong winds.

'Good communications'

Mr Kyne used a satellite phone to call for help from the 9.3m (30.5ft) long yacht, which was not taking part in the ARC race.

A spokesman for Falmouth Coastguard said: "The yacht was well-equipped with good communications and all the necessary life saving apparatus.

"The men were instructed to stay with the yacht as long as it stayed afloat, but ready to evacuate to a life raft if required."

Coastguards contacted ARC race control who were able to broadcast to all their race yachts as well as making a distress relay broadcast into the area.

Another yacht that was accompanying the race responded to the distress calls and picked them up.

The crew were being taken to St Lucia and were described as being "safe and well". The yacht Spam is later believed to have sunk.

The ARC yacht race goes from Las Palmas De Gran Canaria to finish at Rodney Bay St Lucia in the Caribbean.

Ship’s Pilot Is Charged in Oil Spill

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 7 — A California maritime agency has filed misconduct charges against the American captain at the helm of a Chinese container ship that hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 7, spilling 58,000 gallons of fuel and fouling 40 miles of shore.

The agency, the Board of Pilot Commissioners, accused the captain, John J. Cota, of piloting the ship at an unsafe speed despite heavy fog that posed an obvious threat in navigating the 900-foot vessel under bridge.

Mr. Cota’s lawyer, John Meadows, would not answer questions on Friday, but has previously said Mr. Cota complained about faulty equipment and radar that flickered as he tried to maneuver through a narrow channel.

“The matter is in the hands of the State Board of Pilot Commission, and we cannot comment,” Mr. Meadows said. “Mr. Cota is very sad at all the loss of animal life and the threats to his career.”

Mr. Cota, a 25-year shipping veteran who could lose his license, has 15 days to respond. He is entitled to a hearing before the state panel, which cited errors in judgment and “misconduct.”

Football Field-sized Kite Powers Latest Heavy Freight Ship

From Layer 8, NetworkWorld.com

A kite the size of a football field will provide most of the power for a German heavy freight ship set to launch in December.

The Beluga shipping company that owns the 460-foot Beluga said it expects the kites to decrease fuel consumption by up to 50% in optimal cases as well as a cutback of the emission of greenhouse gases on sea by 10 to 20%. Interestingly, the ship will be hauling windmills from Esbjerg, Denmark to Houston, Texas.

The company that makes the kite for the German transport, SkySails, has made kites for large yachts but is targeting commercial ships with new, larger kites. And it has the ambitious goal of equipping 1,500 ships with kites by 2015.

One of the Saddest Sights In The World

It's fortunate that all the passengers have been rescued but it HURTS to see a beautiful ship looking so...finished, doesn't it?



Photo from the BBC.

Brothers Reunited: City Buys South Brother Island

From Gothamist

The city's last privately owned island was sold to the federal government for $2 million. South Brother Island, a 7-acre island (just west of Rikers Island), will be turned over to the city's Parks and Recreation Department and will remain, as amNew York reports, "significant nesting colony for several types of shore birds, including Egrets, Cormorant, and Night Herons."

According to the NY Times, the deal, which was "brokered by the Trust for Public Land and financed with federal money secured by United States Representative José E. Serrano" of the Bronx, was "complex" (non-profit The Point and the Wildlife Conservation Society chipped in money to buy the land). Serrano told AMNY, "You know the way New York is. Eventually somebody would have bought and decided to tear it all up… We can have one place in the great metropolis to see how it used to be."

The island was previously owned by Jacob Ruppert Jr., the brewery magnate and congressman who co-owned the Yankees when Babe Ruth was traded from the Red Sox. He had a summer house on the island, but it burned down in 1907 and South Brother Island remained largely undeveloped since. After that, the island had a number of owners, including the city, which sold it to Hamptons Scow for $10 in 1975. The Times calls Hamptons Scow a sand and gravel company, while AMNY says it's an investment company; either way, it now stands to make $1,999,990 in profit on the 32-year investment.

Forgotten NY has a good look at the history of South Brother Island and its neighbor, North Brother Island (North Brother Island is where Typhoid Mary was sent and near where a ship in 1904 burst into flames, killing over 1,200 people), as well as some photographs. And Ruppert's great-great-nephew K. Jacob Ruppert told the Times, “There’s no beautiful lagoon. It’s a mound of bird poop. But there are beautiful birds. I never thought I could walk up to a swan on her nest. The ground is nothing but bird droppings and broken egg shells.”

Images from Google Earth

Whale found deep in Amazon jungle

By Gary Duffy BBC News, Sao Paulo

The whale's back and fin were out of water and exposed to the sun Whale with swimmers

A 5.5m long minke whale has been spotted more than 1600km (994 miles) from the Atlantic Ocean, deep inside the Amazon rain forest.

The whale ran aground earlier this week but after being freed with the help of vets and biologists it disappeared shortly afterwards.

It is the second time this week in Brazil that a lost animal has been spotted in an unexpected location.

The minke whale ran aground on a sandbar deep inside the Amazon.

Local people had been splashing water on the whale's back and fin while it was exposed to the hot Amazon sun.

The whale is said to weigh about 12 tons.

Reports of a mysterious animal in the area had been causing alarm among locals near to the Tapajos river, a tributary of the Amazon.

Experts say the animal could have been in the area for a couple of months.

After the whale was freed, helicopters and boats were involved in a search of the area but nothing was found.

A biologist said it was thought the animal became separated from its group and swam upstream, until it ran aground near Santarem in Para state.

While it is not unprecedented, it is unusual for whales to venture so far into fresh water.

Beach alligator

The whale is not the only animal to get lost in Brazil this week.

On Thursday a young reptile - which was 1.5m long - turned up at a popular beach in Rio de Janeiro and had to be rescued by firemen.

They had been searching for the alligator for some time and had closed Barra beach, but despite this some swimmers insisted on entering the water.

The caiman, or yellow stomach alligator as it is known in Brazil, was taken to a local zoo for treatment for a broken leg.

This endangered species is normally found in freshwater swamps and marshes, and the fire service in Rio said it was the first time they had rescued one from the sea.

Cargo Ship Sinks in Sea of Japan

MOSCOW, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- A cargo ship with 30 Russian crew and six passengers sank in the Sea of Japan on Sunday, and 22 have been rescued, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

The vessel sank during a storm 180 miles (288 kilometers) off Russia's far eastern port of Nakhodka in the morning, the agency quoted Russian Emergencies Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov as saying.

Twenty-two crew members and passengers were rescued by boarding four inflatable rafts, Beltsov said.

A nearby ship was trying to pick up the other crew and passengers, but the operation was hampered by bad whether, he added.

The ship, registered in the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, was transporting timber from Nakhodka to China, Interfax said.

Bay Oil Spill May Prompt Restrictions

by Erica Werner

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Coast Guard may consider restricting movement of ships in heavy fog in the wake of the 58,000-gallon oil spill in San Francisco Bay, the head of the service said.

"If we had said you can't leave until the fog clears, and that was 3 o'clock in the afternoon, looking back on it that would be preferable to the millions of dollars (the ship's owners) are going to pay for response," the Coast Guard's commandant, Adm. Thad Allen, told The Associated Press in an interview.

"I think controls on ships in low visibility probably is something you could look at," he said. He said the benefit of any new regulations would have to be weighed against the economic costs on the shipping industry.

Allen also discussed other possible responses to the spill that occurred last Wednesday morning when the cargo ship Cosco Busan, moving in poor visibility, sideswiped one of the supports of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, spreading oil around one of the country's most famous and fragile ecosystems and shutting down fishing in the affected area.

Another would be to develop a "risk matrix" that could trigger controls on movement of ships when a number of factors, such as weather, tide and port congestion, added up to a risky situation.

After spending about 24 hours in San Francisco viewing the Bay by air and meeting with emergency crews, lawmakers and city officials, Allen stood by his initial defense of the Coast Guard's response to the spill. His agency has come under fire principally for a time lag of several hours between when officials realized the spill was 58,000 gallons — not 140 gallons as initially reported — and when that information was relayed to the public.

Allen reiterated that his impression was that crews were working so hard to respond to the spill that notifying city leaders and the public about its magnitude fell through the cracks.

"I don't think anybody was sitting there with a cup of coffee sleeping or anything like that," Allen said late Monday while en route to Washington from San Francisco. "But if we find that there was something that somebody should have been doing different, we would counsel them — we'll do whatever's indicated."

The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting an independent investigation of the crash and the Coast Guard's initial response.

Allen said his agency would work on how to respond to such a situation in the future.

"How do you handle a low-visibility situation when you can't ascertain how much oil's been released. That's a knotty problem," he said. "We've got to take that knotty problem back and work it."

Even if the agency had simply stated that an unknown amount of oil had spilled, then later released the accurate figure, "it wouldn't have been seen as somehow a betrayal of trust," Allen added.

Allen said Sunday night that he wanted records of communications between the crew of the Cosco Busan and the Coast Guard's Vessel Traffic Service released within 24 hours. The NTSB then took control of the transcripts and audio and has refused to make them public or say when it would.

"I laid down the marker. Hopefully that will prompt appropriate behavior" by NTSB, Allen said.

Mechanical failure has been ruled out in the crash and federal investigators are looking at actions of the crew and the local pilot. --From the Associated Press

Tanker Spills Oil in Black Sea Strait

Reuters

The cargo vessel Vera Voloshina after it ran aground during a storm off the Ukraine's Crimean peninsula on Sunday. The storm also broke up a small Russian oil tanker, the Volganeft-139, spilling fuel oil into the Black Sea.

Heavy Storm Splits Tanker, Spilling Oil Off Russia

The New York Times

The ship was near Kerch, between Russia and Ukraine.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) -- Rescuers on Monday recovered the bodies of three sailors after a Russian freighter sank near the Black Sea, while officials assessed damage from an oil tanker spill that could be the worst environmental disaster in the region in years.

The Nakhichevan was one of two freighters that broke up as 18-foot waves battered ships throughout the region surrounding the Strait of Kerch, a narrow strait linking the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov.

The dead sailors wearing life vests washed up near Tuzla on the western side of the strait, said Emergency Situations spokesman Sergei Kozhemyaka. Rescuers were looking for five others.

As many as 10 ships sank or ran aground in the strait and the northern Black Sea region during the fierce storm, including the tanker, the Volganeft-139, loaded with nearly 1.3 million gallons of fuel oil. Nearly half that amount had spilled into the strait and had begun washing up on nearby shorelines.

The Russian tanker's 13 crew members were rescued, authorities said.

Officials said it could be the worst environmental disaster in the region in years, and could take years to clean up.

Nakhichevan and the other freighter together were carrying about 7,150 tons of sulfur, which also spilled into the waters. Experts were trying to determine if there could be any long-term damage.

Alexei Zhukovin, an expert with the Emergency Situations Ministry's branch in southern Russia, said sulfur was not dangerous to the region's habitat.

Vesti 24 on Sunday reported the sinking of a Russian freighter carrying metal near the port of Sevastopol on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Two members of its 16-man crew drowned and one was missing, it said.

Maxim Stepanenko, a regional prosecutor, told Vesti 24 that captains had been warned Saturday about the stormy conditions. He said the Volganeft-139 -- designed during Soviet times to transport oil on rivers -- was not built to withstand a fierce storm.

------

Associated Press Writer Carley Petesch contributed to this report from New York.

Russian oil tanker splits in half

From BBC

Russian TV showed pictures of other boats damaged in the storm

Up to 2,000 tons of fuel oil have leaked near the Black Sea after a Russian oil tanker split in half - in a storm that sank four other ships.

A Russian official said the tanker accident was a "very serious environmental disaster".

The vessel came apart after it was smashed by 5m (16ft) waves at the Kerch Strait between the Azov and Black Seas.

The ship's 13 crew were rescued after several hours, but at least 15 people were missing from another ship.

Dozens of vessels have reportedly been evacuated from the busy Russian commercial port of Kavkaz because of the storm, which was packing winds of 108km/h (67 mph).

'Sinking to seabed'

The broken oil tanker, reportedly owned by Russian firm Volganeft, was at anchor when its stern tore apart in the waters of Ukraine at the busy waterway dividing that country and Russia, officials said.

"This problem may take a few years to solve. Fuel oil is a heavy substance and it is now sinking to the seabed," said an official from Russia's state environmental protection agency Rosprirodnadzor.

"This is a very serious environmental disaster," Reuters quoted him as telling Russia's state-run Vesti-24 channel.

But the oil spill is small by comparison with the Prestige disaster off Spain five years ago.

Severe habitat damage was caused to beaches in Spain, France and Portugal when a tanker leaked 64,000 tonnes of fuel oil in November 2002.

Three of the other vessels that sank in Sunday's storm were carrying sulphur.

Meanwhile, 15 crew members were reportedly missing from a scrap metal ship that sank 300km (187 miles) further west, near Sevastopol on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

CG "Rescues" Nantucket Shoal Buoy

U.S. Coast Guard | November 08, 2007

Boston, MA. -- The Coast Guard found the Nantucket Shoal buoy, which was blown off station by the remnants of Hurricane Noel, about 90 miles southeast of Nantucket, Mass., Monday.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan McKenna, the underway officer of the day aboard the 210-foot Coast Guard Cutter Dependable, from Cape May, N.J., discovered the yellow whistle buoy adrift 23 nautical miles south from its normal position.

The Dependable towed the buoy approximately 75 miles before transferring it to the Willow, a 225-foot buoy-tending cutter from Newport R.I., at around 4 p.m., Tuesday.

"We were lucky to find the buoy 23 nautical miles off station, take it into tow and pass it off to the Cutter Willow," said Commander Laura Dickey, the commanding officer of the Dependable. "It was just another day in Coast Guard operations."