I'm just now in port from a ridiculously amazing week shared with good friends and more humpback whales than I could have hoped for. I'll be sharing that story when I'm back in the office in a few days but for the moment, sorry, some rather nasty news. A 75300 tonne tanker (yes, that's 15 TIMES larger than our favorite Antarctica vessel, Polar Star, by weight!) carrying a load of soybeans ran aground in Tristan de Cunha a few days ago. She has now broken apart and is leaking her reported contents of 300,000 gallons of heavy marine oil and 15,000 gallons of diesel oil. Thanks, Jim, for alerting me.
This is a serious bummer for the penguins of the world. The endemic Northern Rockhopper resides there, as do Greater Shearwaters and an abundance of other seabirds. How a brand new tanker - commissioned in 2009 - could run aground on a well charted island, that is entirely beyond me.
The story, with photos: http://www.tristandc.com/newsmsoliva.php --- this is a chronological webpage, so the most recent news is at the bottom.
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