Im So Impressed

[AlisterC]

Matt and Charl, you guys are spot on too.
Unfortunately, nuclear power should not be an option at the moment. I think the human race is not yet smart enough, or consciencious enough to use it safely. Especially for world shipping. How many of these companies and vessels are actually registered in places that have rules and regulations? Rena I think is registered in Monrovia of all places. That's Liberia! This is known by wiki as a flag of convenience http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_convenience . The process of registering a vessel in a country with relaxed rules and regulations on all sorts of scary things.. Imagine if they started doing that for nuclear power. Switching to nuclear power might be safe for a few decades, while ships were in the hands of good companies with proper funding and ethics, but eventually worn out ships would be passed to owners with little cares for the consequences of failure. In the hands of the US military, yes, I would say nuclear power is extremely safe, but in the hands of some of these 'fly by night' shipping companies? lol No way. So many of these vessels are poorly maintained and operated, and getting old. I wouldn't be surprised to find later that their run in with the other vessel near Napier was due to their radar system being out of order. Can you imagine if their nuclear controls were out of order?
A meltdown could make the entire Bay of Plenty uninhabitable, whereas at least now all 'we' need to do is clean up the beaches. Remember this is only a vessel's fuel oil spill, it's not an oil tanker. Those by the way have new building standards for better protection in case of accidents since the Alaska disaster. I wouldn't call this a disaster yet, though the media certainly are. Obviously I don't live there, or know what's going on, but we might see a 'disaster' start to form at 9am I guess when the experts think more oil will start arriving on the shore.
I am sorry for the BOP who have to deal with this, and the wildlife, but unfortunately container ships are a fact of life we can't live without. Our economy breathes on these given our isolated position in the South Pacific Ocean. We can't live without them, and to be honest, I bet the Tauranga economy thrives partly due to the fact the port plays such a key role in New Zealand shipping. In terms of my company, Tauranga would be second only to Auckland for outwards containers bringing millions of dollars into the NZ economy every year.

[ardypilot]

...so when is someone going to make a tipped over container ship with a big oil slick .BGL file so we can all go appreciate the size of this monstrosity in FSX then?

[Ian Warren]

I don't no Andy , since its a great day in CHCH , good go at trying to kill myself early the sarvo , think i,ll relax outside and dust off my Battleship , now that,s something ( a real one i mean ) like this would be ideal , do they not like fireworks in the Mount .. BURN THE OIL ! ... damn and bugger people will say think off the smoke , would someone think off the children .

Strange as it seems you still hear the old line 'people are going to make mistakes' they will as one but as a team , i stopped the running off a machine that cost the company quiet a few thousand dollars , the setup was fine but rule number one is check and double check and if your not sure you simply do not run the machine , across in another plant one let it go and run it , 15/18,000 dollars later , another in one plant during my induction , Russian - taped a sensor ... months later he was promoted .. industrial oils and spills , engineers loved me . I lost my job at General Cable because i collapsed , this could have been fixed and could have been put in an area that would not have caused or created harm ...um .... I look at the above as an example

I knew i should have been an airline pilot , enjoying the double checking and checking again , not sure don't go , if your to sure check .

[AlisterC]

Ian, I certainly think the captain and company should be punished for such a mistake! Especially if it comes down to being careless or irresponsible.

[Charl]

Seems there may have been a birthday party on board at the time.
The captain has appeared in court, name suppressed but passport taken.
$10,000/12 months a possibility.

But the containers have started falling overboard, now a shipping hazard.
Port of Tauranga faces closing its operations, just at the start of the Cruiseliner season.

Ten grand doesn't really do it for me, is keelhauling still on the maritime statutes?

[Ian Warren]

Here we go , now only going to get worst , the containers really only sit on top held by pins , they should have dropped and pinned them when they had the chance .

QUOTE (Charl @ Oct 12 2011,5:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ten grand doesn't really do it for me, is keelhauling still on the maritime statutes?

And that,s a hauling where hull is still sitting ... sure we can change the rules ! everyone else seems too

[Kahu]

Went for a quick surf this morning, walked out to the breakers then a quick paddle out, jumped up on the board to find my feet covered in oil making a sticky mess on my board(which is extremely hard to get off). So there's still oil mixed in the sand out there.

Keep the pressure on these ###### container ship company's, especially now with us getting all the bloody Auckland traffic because of those lazy port workers up there!!

[Ian Warren]

Yeah , we'd all love to get payed $90.000 a year for 26 hours work ... Wharfies !

[ZK-MAT]

I've been out a few times over the past 6 weeks and no oil at all, Main Beach, Clyde Street, and Papamoa Domain. Lucky I guess but from where I sit all looks pretty good on the beach. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place!

[Kahu]

It seems to be at a spot at shark alley at low tide under the water.