Tag Archives: oil spill
Oil spill in Terrebonne Bay on opening day of shrimp season causes grief for fishermen
A Terrebonne Bay oil spill on the first day of Louisiana’s inshore shrimp season has taken a toll on some local fishermen, who say they received no warning of the incident until many hours after it occurred and as a result ended up with fouled nets and oiled boats. The Coast Guard said it was notified through the National Response Center at 3:01 a.m. Monday that a tank platform collapsed at the Hilcorp Caillou Island facility in Terrebonne Bay. “I went out on the opening and I kept pushing all that night,” said Terrebonne Parish shrimper John Sophin. “I didn’t know about the spill, nobody warned me, I didn’t know where it was at.” >click to read< 08:54
Southern California Fisheries Closure Lifted – Fishing to reopen following oil spill off Huntington Beach coast
At noon Tuesday, Nov. 30, waters along a 45-mile stretch of coastline that were closed to fishing because of last month’s oil spill off Huntington Beach, will welcome anglers again, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Monday, (click to read) saying testing showed consuming seafood from the area poses no risk to the public. Terese Pearson, whose family runs Pearson’s Port in the Newport Back Bay, said Monday evening she was “elated” to hear the news that its fishing business could resume after weeks of going without the income,,, >click to read< 09:21
California officials vie to improve response after oil spill
California officials on Monday said better communication and detection technologies could improve the state’s response to an oil spill like last month’s crude pipeline leak off the Orange County coast. The hearing came six weeks after the leak in a pipeline owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp. that ferried crude from offshore platforms to the Southern California coast. The cause of the spill is under investigation, but federal officials have said the pipeline was likely initially damaged by a ship’s anchor. >click to read< 15:25 Of note, more than 645 square miles (1,671 square kilometers) off the coast are still off limits to fishing pending testing.
Oil spill victims could get financial help from Small Business Administration
Local victims of the oil spill off the coast of Orange County could be eligible for low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration, which on Wednesday declared the county a disaster area. While the move falls short of the broader federal disaster designation requested by some in Orange County, it could pave the way for companies to resume any operations, or claw back revenue, stopped or lost because of the spill that first was reported Oct. 1.,,, Terese Pearson, who helps run a family fishing business in Newport Beach, said her primary interest is resuming work, not borrowing money. >click to read< 09:15
California oil spill forces fisheries to wait at least 2-4 weeks before restrictions lift
“Nothing,” Terese Pearson, who runs the 50-year-old business with her husband, Tommy, said of the empty state of the tanks, now nearly two weeks after an oil spill off Huntington Beach earlier this month.,, On Wednesday, the response team started collecting samples that will be tested for chemicals found in crude oil. For Pearson, the testing can’t come soon enough.,, This was the first time in the shop’s 50 years it didn’t have lobster to offer on the season’s opening day, which started just as the oil spill shut down local waters. photos, >click to read< 11:37
Orange County Fisherman Devastated By Oil Spill – Big questions loom for local fishing industries.
Orange County, California sea urchin and lobster fishermen were shut down from crude oil leak in Huntington Beach. This happened at the start of the season after gear was deployed and before any resources were harvested. The CDFW has shut down all local fisheries. This is devastating financially and fishermen have nowhere to turn. One local sea urchin divers wife started a Go-Fund-Me campaign to help ease the pain of uncertainty facing them. CDFW will have to go through a process of scientifically testing lobster and sea urchins to see if there are any contamination issues. Although the beaches have opened, the public safety concerns will take precedence over visible observations. Please help these folks get through these uncertain events by sharing or donating to their survival through this Go-Fund-Me campaign organized by Kimberley Crumley. >click here to read<, and please donate if you can. 16:25
California oil spill shuts down fishing industry
Commercial fishermen like Seth Dubois are locked inside Dana Point and Newport Beach Harbors where boats cannot enter or exit on what was supposed to be the first day of lobster season. Josh Hernandez started fishing a couple of years ago. His future is tied up in slip fees, insurance and so much more during this crucial time. “I got a thousand dollars worth of bait here,” Hernandez said. “I put ten thousand dollars into the boat. And I’ve got credit cards and a two-year-old at home.” The owner of the Linda Faye, Ivar Southern, is leaving his boat docked and going to Oregon for now. Video, >click to read< 14:21
Newport’s Dory Fleet hopes hopes to survive the massive oil spill
The Dory Fleet is an iconic beachfront business, starting in 1891 when a fisherman started marketing to the public on the beach. These days, four families sell fish as a co-op set right on the sand. As a fourth-generation Dory Fleet fisherman operating there since 1902, Scott Breneman and his family have endured challenging times, even surviving the Great Depression. It’s a business that, like the ocean, has an ebb and flow, facing challenges like ever-changing fishing regulations, shellfish bacteria that can restrict crab and lobster catch, sewage spills and more. “A bunch of stuff out of our control,” he said. “I would be out on the boat fishing right now,” he said. “I can’t get out of the harbor.” >click to read< 19:24
Oil spill off Southern California
At least 126,000 gallons of oil spilled into the waters off Orange County, according to a statement from the city of Huntington Beach. The oil created a miles-wide sheen in the ocean and washed ashore in sticky, black globules along with dead birds and fish. Crews led by the U.S. Coast Guard deployed skimmers and floating barriers known as booms to try to stop further incursion into the wetlands and the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. Photos, >click to read< 13:55
Research concludes after years of studying the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its effects in the Gulf
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, a consortium of 17 institutions in six countries, was funded through a $500 million grant from BP. The money was spent on a variety of studies, looking at both the Deepwater Horizon incident itself, and also the long-term ecological impacts.,, Steve Murawski is with the University of South Florida College of Marine Science, which was a leader in the multinational project. The biggest takeaway, he said, is that we weren’t ready for this event. They didn’t have the technology to cap a runaway well, a mile deep, and the government wasn’t prepared,” >click to read< 14:01
The latest spill: fuel valve to blame for power outage on Hibernia oil platform
A low fuel supply to the equipment that keeps the electricity on is being blamed for causing the power outage that resulted in an estimated 2,200 litres of oil spilling into the Atlantic Ocean from the Hibernia platform over the weekend — just 48 hours after production at the site resumed following an earlier spill. The latest spill happened when the power went out on the oil production platform, prompting the sprinkler system to activate. >click to read< 08:19
The Hibernia spill – Regulator fumes as Hibernia shutdown costs N.L. $2.5M a day in deferred revenue
Hibernia ceased operations Wednesday after accidentally releasing an estimated 12,000 litres of oil into the Atlantic Ocean from a storage cell containing a combination of crude oil and water.,,, The Hibernia spill comes eight months after an estimated 250,000 litres of oil leaked from a faulty connector in the sprawling network of cables beneath the SeaRose production vessel in the White Rose oil field. >click to read< 10:52
Hibernia remains shut down as support vessels clean up oil spill
In a statement Saturday night, Hibernia Management and Development Co. (HMDC) said four vessels have been collecting oil. A mixture of 12,000 litres of oil and water spilled into the ocean on Wednesday. The company said five third-party wildlife observers were also in the field. It noted that a report had been made about an oiled bird. >click to read< 13:56
Hibernia platform shut down after oil spill off Newfoundland into the Atlantic Ocean
Production has stopped aboard the Hibernia oil platform off the coast of St. John’s after an undetermined amount of oil spilled from a storage cell into the water. An oil sheen was spotted Wednesday, and the company said in a news release that the spill was an “isolated activity.” In a separate release issued about six hours later, the company announced the rig had halted activity. >click to read< 09:13
Not Good Enough – Husky ‘deeply sorry’ for oil spill last month off Newfoundland
Husky Energy says it is “deeply sorry” for back-to-back spills that sent a total of 250,000 litres of oil, water and gas into the ocean last month, and says it is making changes to prevent anything similar from happening again. The two spills occurred within an hour of each other on Nov. 16, the oil giant revealed in a statement Monday. Husky’s preliminary investigation is now in the hands of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB), after the company submitted its preliminary report on Friday. The spill happened when a flowline connector failed near the South White Rose Extension drill centre, about 350 kilometres east of St. John’s, according to a media release. >click to read<15:58
A 14-year-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico verges on becoming one of the worst in U.S. history
Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever. >click to read<13:06
Reassessed: More than half a million gallons of oil spilled in Gulf near Lousisiana
The U.S. Coast Guard has reassessed an oil spill that happened Oct. 13 (click here) near Venice Louisiana. While initial reports were thought to be at about 400,000 gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico, LLOG, the company which owns the pipleine, estimates that 16,000 barrels were spilled — approximately 672,000 gallons of spilled oil. The oil discharge from a damaged pipeline approximately 40 miles south east of Venice, Louisiana. click here to read the story 11:51
Oil spill spared fish
Almost 30 years after the oil tanker Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef and smeared Prince William Sound with more than 11 million gallons of Alaska crude oil, a team of state and federal scientists have concluded the spill – as bad as it looked and as much impact as it had on marine mammals and birds – appears to have done no real damage to fisheries. “We found no evidence supporting a negative EVOS (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill) impact on herring, sockeye salmon, or pink salmon productivity, and weak evidence of a slightly positive EVOS signal on Copper River Chinook (king) salmon productivity,” the study says. “It is unclear how EVOS may have impacted Chinook salmon positively.” Somewhat surprisingly, however, the study found two non-oil spill events – one natural and one manmade – that appear to have caused significant changes in Sound fisheries. And one of them, a naturally occurring spill of fresh water, appears to be what crippled herring stocks there. click here to read the story link to the study 20:16
Fairhaven officials cite fishing boat’s bilge in harbor oil spill
State and local officials, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, are investigating a “significant oil spill” in New Bedford Harbor, Fairhaven fire officials said. The Fairhaven Fire Department received a call from town Harbormaster Timothy Cox who reported a significant oil spill on the Fairhaven side of the harbor in the area of the Steamship Authority pier and Warren Alexander wharf. Crews were advised that the Fishing Vessel Ocean Princess had pumped its bilge out overnight while making repairs, Fire Department spokesman Wayne Oliveira said in a news advisory about the spill. An unknown quantity of bilge oil was pumped into the harbor causing a floating oil slick, he said. Crews immediately used booms to contain the floating oil and keep the slick from spreading any farther. Read the rest here 09:40
Fishing Company Charged Over $1 Million in Oil Spill Penalties
In its complaint, filed today along with the lodging of a consent decree in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, the United States alleges that the Tri-Marine companies are liable for the October 2014 oil spill from their 230-foot commercial , into Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa and related violations of the Coast Guard’s spill prevention regulations. After the Capt. Vincent Gann returned to Pago Pago Harbor from a two-month fishing voyage, it struck two moored fishing vessels while maneuvering in the harbor on Oct. 16, 2014. Read the rest here 10:53
Jury selection begins for BP exec charged in Deepwater Horizon oil spill
David Rainey, BP’s former vice president for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, will stand trial in New Orleans, charged with obstructing a congressional investigation in the weeks after the oil spill, the largest in US history. Prosecutors allege he deliberately withheld information about how much oil was being pumped into the Gulf following the explosion at the BP well. Rainey was the second in command at BP’s “unified command center” in Robert, Louisiana, where cleanup and response efforts were coordinated. Read the rest here 09:26
PORT O’CONNOR: Oil spill meeting disappoints commercial fishermen and women, oyster harvesters and shrimpers
“All they care about is the wildlife, the birds. They don’t care about the fishermen,” Sandy Taylor, a commercial oysterwoman, said. The meeting Thursday night at the school came after more than 60 Calhoun County fishermen and women met with an attorney because their questions about the effects of the oil spill on seafood were unanswered. Read more here victoriaadvocate 12:21
“If it comes in the bay, we’ve had it,” Port O’Connor Tx. Fishing community worries about oil spill (w/video)
It was late in the day, and nearly everyone had left Clark’s Shrimp House except Craig Lambright and the rest of the three-man shrimper crew. The sleepy fishing town, home to about 1,200 mostly retirement-age residents, anxiously watched as crews poured in from Corpus Christi and Lake Charles, La., setting the stage to clean up as much as 170,000 gallons of oil spilled after a ship collision in the Houston Ship Channel on Saturday. Read more here victoriaadvocate.com 07:52
Sturgell Fisheries – Company to pay $18,800 in fines, fees for oil spill after the company’s crabbing vessel, F/V Genesis A, ran aground
OLYMPIA — The Washington Department of Ecology is fining Sturgell Fisheries $11,500 for spilling nearly 675 gallons of oil into state marine waters on Jan. 25 after the company’s crabbing vessel, Genesis A, ran aground on the Long Beach Peninsula near Leadbetter Point at the entrance to Willapa Bay. [email protected]
