It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, October 07, 2021
Ro-Ro Takes on Water and Partially Sinks, Killing One and Injuring Six
Ivan listing agains the dock settled to the bottom (photos courtesy Directorate for Civil Protection)
Algerian civil authorities came to the aid of the crew aboard a Mediterranean ro-ro after the vessel took on water, causing it to partially sink in the port of Algiers. One person was reported dead, while six other crew were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Maltese shipping company Glenhallen confirmed the reports telling the Italian media that during loading the vessel tilted causing it to take on water while moored in the port. Algerian authorities are investigating the loading of the vessel and the ballasting to identify the cause of the accident.
The 25-year-old ro-ro Ivan had arrived in Algiers from Malta as part of its normal operations linking the ports along with stops in Italy and Libya. The vessel was making bi-weekly visits to the ports.
The Directorate for Civil Protection said that it responded to the vessel around 1 a.m. local time on September 29, finding the vessel partially submerged and listing to starboard, resting on the bottom and the dock. Seventeen crew members were rescued, with six Philippine nationals suffering from minor injuries taken to a local hospital.
Witnesses told the authorities that they believed one person had fallen into the water and was missing. Nine divers and a lifeboat were mobilized for the search operation. Media reports indicate that the person died overnight.
The 8,191 gross ton vessel had been operating since 2019 under charter to Glenhallen, managed by Italy’s K Ships. In January 2021, Glenhallen announced that it had entered into a new bareboat charter and purchase agreement with the Spanish owners Suardiaz for the ro-ro.
Ivan had been sailing since 2019 for Glenhallen Shipping (Glenhallen file photo)
China Begins to Crack Down on Ecologically-Harmful Aquaculture Farms
Efforts to restore a protected wetland area in Hainan previously damaged by aquaculture could provide lessons in sustainable development for the rest of China.
Until recently, the bare plots in the foreground were aquaculture farms. The irrigation channels through the tidal flats remain (Sun Nuo / China Dialogue Ocean)
The Huiwen wetlands stretch nine miles along the northeast coast of Hainan, from Bamen bay next to the city of Wenchang down to Fengjia bay. (The name, used locally, comes from the nearby town of Huiwen.) Varying in width from one half to two and a half miles, the wetlands include large areas of tidal flats and mangrove swamp, which are protected at the provincial level by the Qinglan Mangrove Reserve. They are rich in biodiversity, home to several species of mangrove and over 340 types of mangrove mollusc. And over the winter, they host huge flocks of migratory birds, including endangered species such as Nordmann’s greenshank.
For years, the Qinglan reserve was also home to numerous aquaculture farms, mainly growing a species of sea snail called Babylonia lutosa. But in June this year, all 84 of the farms were removed for falling foul of China’s “ecological redline” rules against aquaculture in natural reserves.
The management of Huiwen’s environment has been a focus since 2017, when the Central Supervision Office of Ecological and Environmental Protection criticized the unregulated development of aquaculture in Hainan. The farms within the Qinglan Mangrove Reserve were specifically mentioned for damaging “shelterbelts” that protect against coastal erosion and storm surges. The following year, the Hainan Department of Agriculture’s plan for shallow waters and tidal flats gave new urgency to bringing aquaculture and effluent management up to government standards. This will be supported by the 14th Five Year Plan for the marine environment – due to be released later this year – of which the Ministry of Ecology and Environment’s “Beautiful Bays” campaign is a key part.
Standards are particularly high for the stretch of tropical coast where the Qinglan Mangrove Reserve lies, as Hainan is a demonstration province for China’s “blue ecological civilization”. Beyond simply removing fish and snail ponds to restore the wetlands, the local government is also keen to find a new balance between conservation and aquaculture. The farmers will be relocated to plots in designated areas or new “aquacultural buildings” where wastewater is handled centrally. Elsewhere, artificial wetlands are being created to filter effluent from the farms. Babylonia lutosa sea snail in a new aquaculture park in Huiwen
A textbook tropical coastline
As well as mangrove swamps, the Huiwen wetlands also boast coral reefs and seagrass meadows. This variety of coastal ecologies makes Huiwen rare, with some describing it as a “textbook tropical coast”. In 2016, it was designated one of the “10 coastal wetlands most worthy of attention” by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, as well as by other bodies. shellfish in Qinglan Mangrove Reserve
But this coastline also suits aquaculture, which needs clean water and stable temperatures. The Hainan Aquaculture Institute built the town of Huiwen’s first aquaculture farm back in 1989, producing shrimp larvae. That prompted other similar operations to start up within the town’s administrative area (which covers about half of the Huiwen wetlands), and it soon became famous for shrimp breeding. At one point, the monetary value of shrimp larvae bred in the town accounted for 30% of China’s total.
Huiwen town’s aquaculture farmers typically use most of their land to build ponds. The roofs help shade the animals inside from the tropical sun. (Image: Sun Nuo / China Dialogue Ocean)
Farmers didn’t, and still don’t, need a huge amount of money to get in on the action. While the farms within the Qinglan Mangrove Reserve have been removed, aquaculture sheds and ponds still line many roads in Huiwen town, often taking over both the front and back yards of people’s homes.
Huiwen town’s aquaculture is now well established, involving a thousand local households farming over 10,000 mu (1,650 acres). The need to draw and discharge water means that all these operations remain close to the sea. Tidal flats, shallow waters and harbours have all been put to use, with farmers growing not just shrimp and the Babylonia lutosa snail but also grouper and other fish.
Aquaculture vs the environment
All this development has put pressure on water quality and the environment. The farmers lay long pipes out into the sea, drawing in cool water, ideally from a depth of about 30 feet. Similar pipes are used to pump waste back into the ocean.
A mass of pipes stretches across Huiwen’s tidal flats to pump seawater into nearby aquaculture farms (Image: Sun Nuo / China Dialogue Ocean)
Unlike brightly coloured industrial effluent, the outflow from aquaculture operations doesn’t look polluted. In Yandun, an aquacultural village within Huiwen town’s borders, the wastewater is actually crystal clear. Juvenile fish that have escaped with the water swim unperturbed among the river reeds.
But this water contains large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous that can cause eutrophication, an excess of nutrients. The effluent, discharged directly into the sea or arriving via Huiwen’s two rivers, means coastal water quality is not always up to standard.
Worse, the Qinglan reserve farmers dug channels for their water pipes across tidal flats, in the process damaging areas of seagrass. A paradise for bottom-dwellers, seagrass meadows provide food and habitats for numerous coastal species. But large expanses of the Huiwen wetland’s meadows – once home to half of Hainan’s seagrass species – have already disappeared. Now there are only scattered patches, usually of a single type of the grass.
Wastewater pollution from the aquaculture farms creates problems for the farmers too. Given the density of farms in Huiwen town, once wastewater is discharged, it’s understandable that other farms end up pumping some of the pollution back into their own ponds. If the wastewater contained pathogens, disease can spread quickly.
A local farmer explained that they “raise two to three crops of shrimp larvae a year, but disease can cause the loss of several consecutive batches”. The cost of electricity for pumping water alone can be up to 10,000 yuan ($1,500) a month. So if disease strikes, losses soon mount.
Wastewater from densely packed aquaculture farms in Yandun village is discharged directly into the local river (Image: Sun Nuo / China Dialogue Ocean)
‘Modernizing’ local aquaculture
With the criticism it meted out in 2017, the Central Supervision Office of Ecological and Environmental Protection also ordered changes. The clean-up started in ecological redline areas where development is, officially, strictly banned. Work to remove aquaculture and restore mangrove swamps got underway across the province.
Since 2019, almost 10,000 mu (1,650 acres) of aquaculture has been removed across the administrative area of Wenchang city, including the 84 aquaculture operations in the Qinglan Mangrove Reserve.
Although the aquaculture farms have now been removed from the Qinglan reserve, the farmers are still living in the houses they built there. The barren plots where their ponds used to be have been planted with sea hibiscus saplings. (Image: Sun Nuo / China Dialogue Ocean)
The removal of the snail farms in the reserve left barren patches of earth between the mangroves and the tidal flats. In an effort to speed the area’s recovery, the local government has planted sea hibiscus saplings. These trees are known as a “semi-mangrove” species because they can survive close to the ocean and are resistant to salt and waterlogging.
Although left without their farms, the farmers have not been abandoned. Some of them will be relocated by the government to a nearby “modern aquaculture park," still under construction and specially designed for the purpose. Their ponds will be housed in three-storey buildings, filled from a centralized pumping system.
The farming of larvae and juvenile fish requires the cleanest water, with constant pumping in and out. Wastewater is fed into a treatment pond outside the building, where it goes through several stages of filtration, which means it will easily meet Hainan’s aquaculture effluent discharge standards. The plan is to try using the processed water to farm adult shrimp and shellfish, which can cope with lower levels of purity.
But the new aquaculture park has one big problem: expense. It currently houses only four tenants, all in its demonstration building. They are farming a variety of species – including seaweeds – to experiment with this new system of “vertical” indoor aquaculture.
Meanwhile, in nearby Yandun, the farmers are trying another method to handle the effluent from their 320 aquaculture operations. Artificial wetlands are being engineered next to the river, into which wastewater is currently pumped. They will be planted with seagrape and Gracilaria seaweeds, which are good at removing things like nitrogen and phosphorous. This will be coupled with the chemical removal of pollutants. Once complete, it’s hoped the wetlands will be able to fully filter the 250 million gallons of effluent the farms produce every day, and ensure the water leaving the village meets government standards.
These efforts, and others in the wider Wencheng area, mean new hope for the protection and restoration of Huiwen’s precious wetlands. They also show how hard China is working to find sustainable ways to develop – ways that can accommodate both nature and human activity.
This August saw the completion of a five-year process to divide China’s shallow waters and tidal flats into areas where aquaculture is banned, restricted or permitted. The upcoming 14th Five Year Plan for the marine environment is likely to set new quality requirements for both water and seafood products. As such, it’s hoped that in the next five years we will see further improvements in both the sustainability of aquaculture and the coastal environments on which it relies.
Zhang Chun is a senior researcher at China Dialogue.
Chen Mingzhi is communications director with the ChinaBlue Sustainability Institute.
This article appears courtesy of China Dialogue Ocean and may be found in its original form here.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
NGO Shipbreaking Platform is reporting that seven workers lost their lives in five separate incidents over the past two months at the shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh. The group, which is leading the global campaign to improve the safety and environmental performance of the ship recycling industry, said the recent quarter was the worst in terms of the number of accidents in Bangladeshi shipbreaking history.
In the middle of September, the group reported that five workers were killed and three severely injured in seven separate accidents on the infamous shipbreaking beach of Chattogram, Bangladesh in August. Since then, two additional workers were also killed in two further accidents. The fatalities were caused by explosions, falls from height, falling steel plates, and exposure to toxic fumes.
In the most recent accidents, a 26-year-old fell to his death while working aboard a crude oil tanker the Oro Singa that was recently beached. NGO Shipbreaking is also highlighting that the vessel had around 400 tons of sludge on board that needed to be removed before recycling.
Ten days after that accident, a 36-year-old working at a different scrap facility on the beach was hit by a falling steel plate. He had been working on the scrapping of another crude oil tanker, the Medan.
The other accidents reported in August included falling debris hitting workers, severe burn injuries, two workers dying after inhaling toxic fumes, and an explosion of an oxygen cylinder that killed another worker. The group reports that at least one of the accidents happened during an illegal night shift at one of the yards.
"Bangladeshi authorities need to face their responsibility to protect their citizens’ rights and ensure the effective enforcement of the law,” said Sara Rita da Costa, Project Officer for NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “Business profits can no longer be privileged at the expense of human lives. Urgent action has to be taken against the industry at both?national and international level to stop the incessant breach of basic human rights and environmental laws on the beach?of Chattogram."
The sequence of accidents in Chattogram, which increases the yearly death toll dramatically said NGO Shipbreaking not only shows a lack of responsibility by shipping companies as they continue to sell their end-of-life vessels to be broken under knowingly dangerous conditions but also a lack of action by the Bangladeshi government to regulate the industry.?
NGO Shipbreaking reports that twelve accidents, causing nine deaths and twelve injures, have been registered at one yard alone, SN Corporation, since 2009. In 2021, two workers died and five suffered severe burns at the yard. The 26-year-old also recently fell to his death at the SN yard.
The NGO continues to call on local governments to take action as well as the international community and shipowners to work only with approved recycling facilities to improve the safety in one of the most dangerous segments of the shipping industry.
ICS Presents CO2 Plans Saying Governments and IMO Must Act
In the lead-up to the UN’s climate conference and the IMO’s next round of meetings on the industry’s efforts to decarbonize, organizations continue to put forth positions. The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is the latest submitting plans to the IMO detailing what the shipping organizations say are the urgent measures that governments must take to help the industry achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
Saying that it has analyzed and deliberated the issues with senior industry executives, the trade group asserts that a net-zero target by 2050 will only be plausible if governments take the necessary actions to achieve the goal. The ICS’s plans repeat the proposal the group has been advocating for with a compulsory R&D fund to develop zero-carbon technologies and the development of a carbon levy for shipping to expedite the transition to more expensive zero-carbon fuels.
“A net-zero carbon ambition is achievable by 2050. But only provided governments take the unglamorous but urgent decisions needed to manage this process within a global regulatory framework,” said Esben Poulsson, Chairman of ICS. “Talk is cheap, and action is difficult. So, our net-zero offering sets out the how as well as the what for decarbonizing shipping by 2050. We’re saying to governments that if they really want to reach net-zero, they need to move from empty commitments to tangible action.”
Given the typical 25-year life of new oceangoing ships, if the industry is to meet an ambitious net-zero target, thousands of zero-emission ships will need to be in the water by 2030, the ICS says in its proposal. They believe that is critical for the IMO to adopt those urgent measures required to accelerate an increase in technology readiness levels.
A key step the ICS proposes is for governments to approve the establishment of the $5 billion IMO Maritime Research Fund. Groups from within the shipping industry have been advocating for the R&D fund and in June at its last meeting the IMO’s committee agreed to review the concept. According to the ICS, the fund is required to provide the funding needed to accelerate the development of zero-emission ships. It would be funded by mandatory R&D contributions from shipowners globally, via a $2.00 levy, which the organizations say should be put in place by 2023. However, some regulators and industry observers have said that the fund would disadvantage small operators.
To expedite the transition to net-zero, ICS has also made a comprehensive proposal setting out the architecture for a broader carbon levy applicable to shipping, which will be considered by IMO Member States at a meeting in mid-October. According to the ICS, their proposal would help close the price gap between zero-carbon and conventional fuels and could be used to provide the billions of dollars needed to deploy essential new bunkering infrastructure required in ports worldwide.
“If a net-zero target is to be more than a political gesture, governments need to recognize the magnitude of the challenge of phasing-out CO2 emissions from large oceangoing ships,” said Guy Platten, Secretary General of the ICS. “Only these proposed measures can tackle the innovation and knowledge gap, and challenges of a global equitable transition, that shipping’s decarbonization presents.”
The ICS’s proposals however will be competing for attention with various others including the EU’s efforts at adding the shipping industry to its carbon trading scheme. Pacific islands, including the Marshall Islands, Solomons, Fiji that are among the worst impacted by rising sea levels, demanded the IMO adopt a harsher $100 per ton fee on emissions. Other proposals are also likely to be presented before the upcoming hotly debated sessions.
COWABUNGA DUDE
Surfers sidelined as California races to clean up oil spill
Issued on: 07/10/2021 -
The normally thronged Huntington Beach is all but empty after an oil spill closed a long section of coast
Patrick T. FALLON AFP
Huntington Beach (United States) (AFP)
Beaches normally thronged with the bronzed torsos of surfers are deserted as California races to clean up a huge oil spill.
Up to 131,000 gallons of crude could have leaked into the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of the United States when a pipeline ruptured at the weekend.
Authorities are investigating whether a ship's anchor could have ripped open the pipe, dragging it more than 100 feet (30 meters) along the seafloor.
A 15-mile (24-kilometer) stretch of coast has been closed to the public -- including some prime surfing spots that are usually packed with boarders.
"It's weird to see no surfing out there for miles. It's very strange," said Shawna Sakal, manager of a surf store just yards from Huntington Beach pier.
"There's always people surfing, they're doing it year-round. The ocean is full of surfers, especially on the north and south side of the pier."
Huntington Beach revolves around surfing. Equipment rental and sales stores jostle for space with surf schools.
Cargo ships are anchored off the coast waiting for a berth at Los Angeles or Long Beach ports
Frederic J. BROWN AFP
But almost all of them are now shuttered.
For the tight-knit community of surfers, that's tough.
"We have a bunch of friends that just surf, so sometimes we don't even text each other," said 18-year-old Jake McNerney. "We'll just see each other out there." - Logjam -
More than 300 personnel are involved in the emergency response to the spill, which has been traced to a pipeline near Long Beach.
Clean up crews outnumber surfers at Huntington Beach
Patrick T. FALLON AFP
Dozens of container ships are anchored off the harbor there -- one of the world's busiest container ports -- waiting for a berth in a pandemic-sparked shipping logjam.
The Los Angeles Times cited a federal investigator as saying a misplaced anchor from one of these ships was the most likely cause of the pipeline's rupture.
Officials said almost 5,000 gallons of crude have been recovered so far, and more than a dozen birds covered in oil have been rescued.
Clean-up crews in protective gear could be seen on Newport Beach, further down the coastline, with weather patterns pushing oil south. - School -
Powder blue skies and warm sunshine offered perfect beach weather on Wednesday, but stores and restaurants that rely on visitors were empty.
Oil platforms dot the coastline of California
Frederic J. BROWN AFP
"Probably 50 percent of our business we probably lost so far," said Sakal, whose father has been selling the surfboards he makes in their family-run store for five decades. October is prime surfing time.
"It's the best for surfers, and it's best for people that live here. The weather's really nice during this time," said Sakal.
"It gets hot in the inland areas, so they all come to the beach on the weekends, but they can't come to the beach now because of the oil spill."
The disaster has also put a hole in the curriculum of one local school, where surf skills count as a credit towards graduation.
"We had just begun our competitive season the week before the spill," says Lisa Battig of Fountain Valley School, located just minutes from the beach.
"All five teams also operate as classes and students receive PE (physical education) credit.
The waters of Southern California are teeming with wildlife, including birds, fish, whales and dolphins
Frederic J. BROWN AFP
"We will be staying out of our local waters until we receive the all clear from the agencies."
In the meantime, students will be practicing on land, she says, and traveling out of the area to surf at the weekend.
But they will be doing their part to help speed along the clean-up.
"When and if it is safe and reasonable, the students will also get involved with clean-up," she said.
Many of the same tools and technologies have been deployed to deal with these environmental catastrophes over the past 20 years, but now, two teams of scientists say their reusable sponges can sop up oil at the surface and underwater — in some cases holding more than 30 times their weight — without doing additional harm to the marine environment.
It's the kind of innovation they say could make oil spill cleanups, like the situation currently playing out off Huntington Beach, not only more efficient but also more effective. An estimated 126,000 gallons of heavy crude leaked from a ruptured pipeline into the Pacific Ocean early Saturday, setting off frantic efforts to prevent the oil from washing up onto the area's beaches and into its protected marshlands.
"I think a lot of folks don't realize that when there is an oil spill, in almost all cases, most of the oil is never cleaned up by humans," said Seth Darling, director of the Center for Molecular Engineering at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois. "We clean up some, and the rest Mother Nature eventually cleans up, though not quickly, and it wreaks havoc on the local environment all that time."
Darling and his colleagues at Argonne developed a tool called the Oleo Sponge, which is made by altering the same type of foam that is commonly used in seat cushions and mattresses to make it "oleophilic," which means it can draw in oil without also soaking up water.
At Northwestern University, a team of scientists developed a similar absorbent called the OHM sponge that uses a specially designed magnetic coating to selectively soak up oil in water.
"Oil and water don't mix well, but when they do, it's very difficult to remove," said Vinayak Dravid, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern, who led the research. "We wanted something that could not only suck up oil but could do it very quickly."
In lab tests, Dravid and his colleagues showed that the OHM sponge could absorb more than 30 times its weight in oil and can be reused more than 40 times without losing its effectiveness.
With both the Oleo Sponge and the OHM sponge, the recovered oil can be used again, which also means less overall waste after spills.
Both Darling and Dravid said their sponges were designed to fill a gap in available technologies to clean up oil spills, offering officials a new way to respond to major incidents like the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, when an estimated 210 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. While satellite technologies to map and model oil spills have improved greatly since the Deepwater Horizon spill, the processes for cleanup crews on the water and on beaches have remained mostly stagnant.
"Deepwater Horizon should have driven a lot of innovation but didn't," said John Pardue, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Louisiana State University, who conducted research and ran an advisory program for a land trust in Louisiana in the aftermath of the 2010 spill.
He said it's because resources are typically devoted to studying the spill sites, as well as the effect of leaked oil on the environment and plants and animals in the region, while funding for developing new cleanup tools is usually limited.
"There's been upgrades in modeling how spills move and how oil affects fish and animals in the deep ocean and marshes, but in terms of response work, there were a few things that have been tried but nothing that rose to the level of something that will be used moving forward," Pardue said.
Scientists like Darling and Dravid are hoping to change that.
At present, cleanup crews typically use booms to contain oil spills and prevent them from spreading. The oil can then be skimmed off the surface, but this method is less effective in choppy waters, and waves can push oil deeper into the ocean, where it's much harder to clean.
Another method for removing oil at the water’s surface is to burn it, but there are obvious drawbacks with employing that strategy.
“It does remove a lot of oil from the water, but of course that turns a water pollution problem into an air pollution problem,” Darling said.
Local officials can also spray oil slicks with dispersants, which break oil into smaller droplets that mix more easily with water. The idea is to remove the oil through biodegradation, in which bacteria and other microorganisms naturally feed on the oil and essentially remove it from the environment.
With the Oleo Sponge, Darling said it's a new type of absorbent that can sop up spills at the surface and when oil has seeped deeper into the water column. And since the sponges can be reused, they are a "greener" alternative to the tools currently available.
In 2017, the researchers tested the sponges in a giant seawater tank in New Jersey and demonstrated that they could collect diesel and crude oil both below and on the water's surface. The scientists also tested the Oleo Sponge at a natural oil seep off the California coast, near Santa Barbara, to assess how it works in real-world environments.
Darling said the Coast Guard and private companies have expressed interest in the Oleo Sponge. The goal now, he said, is to find a partner to handle manufacturing the sponges at large scales.
With the OHM sponge, Dravid said he expects the technology to be commercially available soon. He added that his team has already sent samples to colleagues in California to help with recovery efforts at and around Huntington Beach.
In addition to cleanup efforts on the water, Dravid and his colleagues are exploring how the OHM sponge can be modified to soak up oil that washes up on beaches or to assist with cleaning up other types of hazardous contamination.
Dravid said he's eager for his research to have an impact, but it comes with a bittersweet cost.
"It's odd because on the one hand, we're excited for the opportunity to show how this technology can make a difference," he said. "But with oil spills, we're always sad for the environmental side of things."
Broken SoCal Oil Pipeline Moved 100 Feet From Charted Position
On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said that dive and ROV investigations have confirmed unusual signs of damage to the oil pipeline that spilled 125,000 gallons of crude off the coast of Orange County, California last weekend.
According to the unified response command, a section of pipeline of about 4,000 feet in length has shifted position by about 100 feet. One segment has a 13-inch split - the likely source of the oil release - and officials said that the damage is not consistent with "normal wear and tear" on the pipeline. Divers have confirmed that the breach is no longer spilling oil, and the pipeline operator has applied suction to both ends of the 17.7-mile line in an attempt to keep any remaining crude inside.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation. On Monday, USCG Capt. Rebecca Ore - the commander of Coast Guard Sector LA/Long Beach - said that the pipeline may have been damaged by a ship's anchor, among other possibilities.
"These ships are anchored and many are awaiting entry into the San Pedro Bay Port complex - the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach - and . . . it is possible that they would transit over a pipeline," said Capt. Ore.
The command also responded to questions about the response timeline. The USCG's National Response Center was notified of an offshore spill on Friday evening, but the Coast Guard did not initiate a spill response effort until Saturday morning. In an explanation, the unified command said that the early reports could not be confirmed until Saturday due to restricted visibility, and the spill was spotted as soon as the fog lifted.
As of Tuesday morning, response crews have recovered neary 5,000 gallons of oil, cleaned six miles of shoreline and deployed almost two miles of containment boom. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency to free up federal funds for the spill response, and he is due to visit the scene on Tuesday.
"The state is moving to cut red tape and mobilize all available resources to protect public health and the environment," said Gov. Newsom. "As California continues to lead the nation in phasing out fossil fuels and combating the climate crisis, this incident serves as a reminder of the enormous cost fossil fuels have on our communities and the environment."
Study: Observers Find Poor Conditions on Most Live Export Ships
Live export loading operations, Pilbara, Australia (file image courtesy PPA)
A new study in the respected veterinary journal Animals suggests that inhumane conditions may be the norm - not the exception - on live export voyages.
The study is based on 37 reports filed by Australian government observers aboard live-export voyages from Australia to China. These government reports are published in summary form only, but the available details are enough to raise concerns for animal rights activists. 30 out of 37 of the independent observer summaries documented "poor pen conditions or insufficient space," according to co-author Dr. Di Evans, and "all 37 of them identified health issues such as painful eye disease, pneumonia or lameness."
In addition, over 40 percent of the voyages struggled to provide adequate water to the livestock. This is of particular concern for transits through the tropics, where heat stress adds to the challenging conditions aboard a live-export ship.
“Nearly a third of voyages had both food and water issues, which is completely unacceptable. These are inhumane conditions to be knowingly putting animals through and unless we see significant change, and ultimately an end to live export altogether, hundreds of thousands more Australian animals are going to suffer.”
Given the high average age of the livestock carrier fleet, it is perhaps unsurprising that nearly two-thirds of the observers also reported problems with the ship's equipment, including poorly-maintained fittings, failing water-supply systems and engine breakdowns.
“What this study makes clear is that this isn’t just one or two bad operators - these animal welfare risks are inherent in the live export trade. For example, a staggering 38 percent of voyages had food shortages or limited access to food, including more than one in 10 voyages having to ration food or exhausting the supply," said Dr. Evans.
WILDFIRE PORN AFP among winners of Covering Climate Now awards
Issued on: 07/10/2021 -
"The road over the Bidwell Bar Bridge seemed to run straight into the heart of the flames," AFP photographer Josh Edelson said
JOSH EDELSON AFP/File
New York (AFP)
Covering Climate Now, a global media project devoted to reporting on global warming, on Wednesday honored Agence France-Presse among the winners of its first journalism award.
"The awards celebrate work that sets a standard of excellence for journalists everywhere to emulate as newsrooms increase their coverage of the climate story," the consortium of over 400 media outlets said in a statement.
The 12 winners chosen from nearly 600 entries included a multimedia piece by The Guardian, which lets the audience listen to the sounds of icebergs melting in the Antarctic, and a long-form piece by ProPublica documenting migration caused by global warming.
Josh Edelson, an AFP photographer based in California who specializes in covering wildfires, won in the photography category for his series "Heart of Fire."
In the series, shot in September 2020, Edelson documented the wildfires burning in California, capturing "the overwhelming size of the inferno and its emotional impact on both firefighters and the displaced," the consortium said.
"In ten years covering wildfires in California, I've never seen anything like what this year brought," Edelson wrote in an essay that accompanies his photo series. "The new normal now seems to be that every fire season brings a new surprise."
Firefighters battling a fire north of Lake Oroville in California in September 2020
JOSH EDELSON AFP/File
"I am transfixed and fascinated and passionate and also humbled by the power of these events and super-driven to continue telling these stories so people can see what's going on inside the fire line," Edelson wrote.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed skeptical of requiring the U.S. government to divulge what it says is secret information being sought by a Guantanamo Bay detainee. But in a surprising turn, several justices also raised questions about the rights of the man, who was tortured by the CIA abroad and has been detained for nearly two decades.
The case the high court was wrestling with involves Abu Zubaydah, who was thought to be a high-ranking member of al-Qaida when he was captured in Pakistan in 2002. He and his lawyer want to question two former CIA contractors about Zubaydah's detention at a secret CIA facility in Poland where they say he was tortured.
The information would be used as part of an ongoing investigation in Poland about Zabaydah's time there.
The fact that Zubaydah was held at so-called CIA black sites in both Thailand and Poland has been widely reported. The U.S. government has also allowed the disclosure of information about how he was treated. But the government has stopped short of acknowledging the locations of the black sites set up after 9/11 to gather intelligence about terrorist plots against Americans. The government has cited national security and its commitments to foreign partners.
The fact that many details of Zubaydah's treatment at the hands of the CIA are public led some justices to question why he shouldn't get access to at least some testimony from the former CIA contractors. “It seems to me there may be a lot that they can talk about" that has "nothing to do with the actual location at which events occurred,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.
But many of the justices also asked Zubaydah's lawyer why, if so much information is public, the testimony of the former CIA contractors is necessary. “What do you need them for?” Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked at one point. “Why do you need additional testimony?” Justice Clarence Thomas asked at another.
At the end of the argument, however, Justice Neil Gorsuch raised a different solution: why not let Zubaydah provide information to Polish officials about his own treatment?
“What is the government’s objection to the witness testifying to his own treatment and not requiring any admission from the government of any kind?” Gorsuch said.
Gorsuch and Justice Sonia Sotomayor told government lawyer Brian H. Fletcher they want an answer about whether the Biden administration would allow that.
“We want a clear answer, are you going to permit him to testify as to what happened to him those dates without invoking a state secret or other privilege? Yes or no,” Sotomayor said.
Fletcher suggested he would provide an answer in a court filing at a later date. But he also said Zubaydah is not being held “incommunicado," as his lawyers contend.
Zubaydah's longtime lawyer Joseph Margulies said in an interview after the argument that everything Zubaydah says is “presumptively classified at a top secret level” and that any communications from him must be first presented to the CIA for review. He said it would represent a “real change” in the government's approach to Guantanamo prisoners if Zubaydah were allowed to “have his voice heard.”
Justice Stephen Breyer also asked about Zubaydah testifying: "He was there. Why doesn’t he say this is what happened?" Breyer said. At another point he questioned Zubaydah's continued detention at Guantanamo, which the Biden administration has said it will close. "I don't understand why he's still there,” Breyer said.
The Supreme Court last addressed the detention of Guantanamo prisoners in 2008, ruling they have a right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Most of the 39 men still held there have never been charged with a crime.
Zubaydah was the first person in the CIA's new detention and interrogation program following 9/11. He spent four years at CIA black sites before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006. According to a 2014 Senate report on the CIA program, among other things Zubaydah was waterboarded more than 80 times and spent over 11 days in a coffin-size confinement box. The extreme interrogation techniques used as part of the program are now widely viewed as torture.
Zubaydah is seeking information from former CIA contractors James Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen, who are considered the architects of the CIA's interrogation program.
Zubaydah and his attorneys note that Mitchell and Jessen have testified twice before in other situations, including hearings at Guantanamo. They say they want nonprivileged information from the men including details of his treatment.
The Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, has opposed the testimony.
A federal court initially ruled that Mitchell and Jessen shouldn't be required to provide any information. But an appeals court ruled 2-1 that the lower court made a mistake in ruling out questioning entirely before attempting to separate what can and can't be disclosed.
The government says in its briefs before the Supreme Court that Zubaydah was “an associate and longtime terrorist ally of Osama bin Laden.” Zubaydah's lawyers say the CIA was mistaken in believing he was a high-ranking member of al-Qaida.
(AP)
NWSL halt play in 'solidarity' moment
Issued on: 07/10/2021
Carli Lloyd Gotham FC looks on prior to her club's NWSL match against the Washington Spirit
Mitchell Leff GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Washington (AFP)
Players from the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC halted play on Wednesday in protest against the scandals that have swept across the the National Women's Soccer League in recent weeks.
NWSL games resumed on Wednesday with three fixtures after the body called off games last weekend following the latest revelations to hit the top professional women's league in the United States. On Wednesday, Washington and Gotham players halted play in the sixth minute in what was described as a gesture of "solidarity" by the NWSL Players Association.
Similar protests were planned for the other two games on the slate.
"Tonight, we reclaim our place on the field, because we will not let our joy be taken from us," the NWSLPA statement read. "But this is not business as usual."
Spirit and Gotham players joined arms on the centre-circle for the pause in play, which was was timed to reflect the number of years it took for allegations against former North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley to be addressed.
Riley was fired last week for "very serious allegations of misconduct". Two players, Sinead Farrelly and Meleana "Mana" Shim, accused Riley of misconduct during his time as Portland Thorns coach in 2015.
"Players will join together in solidarity at the center circle for one minute in honor of the six years it took for Mana, Sinead and all those who fought for too long to be heard," the statement read.
"We call on fans to stand in silence with us. During that time, we ask you to stand in that pain and discomfort with us, as we consider what we have been asked to sit with for too long."
Allegations of sexual harassment and abusive or bullying behaviour by coaches and officials in the NWSL have snowballed in recent months.
NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird resigned on Friday following criticism of her handling of the complaints.
The NWSL players association statement detailed a list of demands being made by the union, which included a request for every coach and general manager to submit to the independent investigation into abusive conduct.
The players union also called for an investigation announced by the NWSL on Sunday to be expanded in scope to include all 12 NWSL clubs as well as league staff.
More than 50 migrants died in 2021 while crossing Panama jungle
Issued on: 07/10/2021
Haitian migrants cross the jungle of the Darien Gap, near Acandi, Choco department, Colombia, heading to Panama, on September 26, 2021, on their way trying to reach the US. From Acandi, they started on foot -- and armed with machetes, lanterns and tents -- the dangerous trek of at least five days to Panama through the Darien jungle, battling snakes, steep ravines, swollen rivers, tropical downpours and criminals often linked to drug trafficking.
Raul ARBOLEDA AFP
Panama City (AFP)
More than 50 migrants have died since the start of the year while trying to cross the Panama jungle in an effort to reach the United States, the Panamanian prosecutor's office said Wednesday.
"The Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Panama has registered 53 migrant deaths in different circumstances in the province of Darien," Jose Vincente Pachar told AFP.
This figure is far higher than in previous years, when between 20 and 30 bodies on average were found in the Darien Gap, a 1,430,000-acre (575,000-hectare) stretch of jungle on the border of Panama and Colombia.
The jungle corridor is the most dangerous stage of the journey to the United States, as migrants face not only natural threats such as snakes and difficult terrain, but also criminals who routinely rob and rape travelers.
It is "very possible the number of deaths will increase," because the flow of migrants through the Darien Gap has surged in 2021, Pachar warned.
Since the start of the year, about 70,000 people have crossed the Darien Gap, according to Panamanian authorities -- a number almost equivalent to the previous five years combined.
While the number of migrants crossing the jungle dropped considerably in the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, the influx is on the rise again.
On September 24, Panama's attorney general's office reported that 10 bodies, including two children, had been discovered.
Colombia on Tuesday asked Panama to "facilitate" entry into its territory for underage or pregnant migrants in order to prevent them from trying to cross the Darien Gap.
