Nov 12 2007
Grief
The oil-coated animals are beginning to wash up now.
Fish and Game is out walking the breakwater, talking about all the supplies they’ll need … for tomorrow… to collect the bodies.
I am sitting here thinking of Rachel Carson, who thought that Silent Spring would be brought by pesticides. Here on the Bay, it’s brought by stupid tankers who crash into a humongous (non-moving) bridge piling, fail to call the right people, who then fail to react promptly. We’re days out, and people are spending more time and energy fingerpointing than they are cleaning up. This fantastic map, courtesy of Boating S.F., shows the path of the Cosco Busan. Someone had to be completely asleep at the wheel to have done this. The small red arrow represents the Cosco Busan, headed for the Bay Bridge center tower at 10 knots. I hear via the news that criminal charges are being brought. Totally ridiculous. What they should do is put everyone on that ship in hazmat gear and have them down on the shore doing cleanup. They should have to spend hours deoiling dying birds, scraping tarballs off formerly pristine beaches, watch the harbor seals trying to find clear water to breathe in.
Most mornings, I am awakened by the seagulls. There were none this morning. The seawall I can see from here is usually covered with cormorants, pelicans, and various kinds of seagulls, all sunning themselves after breakfasting on small silver fish and mussels plucked from the docks. I can see precisely three birds. And the great blue heron that nests in the windbreak of cypress at the other end of the marina is gone. I’m really worried about him. I’m hoping he’s in the shallows somewhere, and safe.
I‘m finally starting to see oil booms outside the marinas; too little too late. We’re on an end, so the water flows past us, but the folks in slips closer to the middle of the marina where the water doesn’t flow so much are in a world of gooey black nastiness.
Back when I was in grad school, this Bay had oil response plans that were the envy of the nation. I don’t know what happened. Did people get complacent? Did too much money get diverted to Iraq? Did everyone assume that since the bridge is huge and obvious and hasn’t moved in a really long time, it’d be avoidable by the reasonably prudent? I know that when the tanker truck blew up, melting a hunk of nearby freeway, everyone freaked out about how easy it would be for a terrorist to shut everything down on Bay Area highways. For some reason, maybe because it’s the water, people aren’t freaking out the same way, but they sure should be. That 58,000 gallons leaked out rapidly, and that the slick not only coated the Bay but headed out the Gate and downcoast, doesn’t seem to be bothering people adequately. I guess it’s easy for people to forget that the health of the land depends on the health of the sea.
I sent a quick note to an email list for liveaboards, asking if anyone had any tips. Most people suggested fleeing. But what happens when we’ve destroyed so much of the ocean that there’s no more running away? This place, this Bay, this ocean, is my home. I don’t want to run; I want this to be cleaned up promptly and responsibly by the appropriate authorities, whose very jobs are maintained by my tax dollars for just such an eventuality.
How naive am I?
I hear that Santa Cruz is a nice place to visit by boat.
Unless you are stuck there or are actively involved in the clean up effort, there’s no reason not to take the opportunity to surround yourself with cleaner water.
Sometimes we need to look after ourselves so that we can be of better use and not let the tar weigh us down.
It’s not fleeing, really. It’s getting ourselves out of the way.
bloody Amazing!
This is so tragic. I won’t speculate or pretend to understand how we got here, but will (naively?) hope the truth becomes known, and that the errors aren’t repeated. But by who- and how? Isn’t the Bay already supposed to be a mass of management regulations to avoid exactly this situation?
And- isnt’ that reaction pretty dang complacent? It’s just punting ot faceless authority. So, it feels very disturbingly complacent from my cushy remote chair.
I wonder if some of the complacency isn’t fostered by public message. What I’ve seen is focused on “don’t do anything, leave it to the professionals.” Wow, that’s making it pretty easy for us to… not do anything.
I’m just sad thinking about this.
B