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JIM CRAWFORD and Les Kupillas collect scaffolding on a job that will go no further for awhile. An early morning July 30 blaze
damaged a house under construction at 3223 Kerrstead Pl. in Lynn Valley. A preliminary estimate values the loss at close to

$100,000. See page 3 for full details.

Diving company questions coast guard
use of U.S. equipment and expertise

plugging the flow of oil currently

A NORTH Vancouver diving company is questioning the
Canadian Coast Guard’s deployment of American cquip-
ment and expertise to survey the sunken wreck of an oil-
leaking Japanese fish-processing boat when the same ex-
pertise and equipment is available in Canada.

Said Can-Dive Services project
manager Murray Spier, **We have
contacted the ministry of trans-
portation, the Honorable (Trans-
port Minister) Jean Corbeil, and
we are awaiting his response re-
garding the situation. I’m not sure
what the exact question was, but
it was something to the effect of,
‘Why was a Canadian firm not
asked to respond to the situation?’

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

It’s in the hands of the Hon. Jean
Corbeil and the charge of the
coast guard is covered under his
umbrella."

The job of surveying the 111-
metre Tenyo Maru, and possibly

fouling Washington state coastline
and killing sea life. is being un-

dertaken by Nerth Vancouver-
based Canpac Divers. The com-
pany brought up a. sKbmersible
and crew from Martech U.S.A. in
Santa Barbara to do the work.

But said Canadian Coast Guard
spokesman Rod Nelson, ‘*‘As far
as J] know Canpac is a Canadian
company. {t's an emergency situa-
ion and we just try to solve the
emergency.”’

Nelson said he wasn’t aware of
the details of how the job was
awarded to do the survey work of

the sunken ship.

Canpac spokesman Glenn
Costello said his company works
with Martech U.S.A.

“The same sub was used when
we worked with Dillingham (Con-
struction) on the Iona outfall near
Vancouver Airport," he said.

Meanwhile the three-man = sub-
mersible, equipped with robotic
arms and video cameras, was to
make its first) survey attempt
Thursday.

The wrecked Japanese ship sits
as decp as 160 metres below sea
level in international waters near
the entrance to the Juan de Fuca
Strait off the West Coast of Van-
couver Island. It was struck July
22 by a Chinese grain ship. One
Japanese crewman was lost at sea
after 85 people abandoned ship.

Costello expects the survey
operation to take about a week.

“Until we find out what's there,
the thought is that if the oil is
coming out of the vents and the
vents are accessible to the sub-
marine, we will try to block those
off. But it will only be a tem-
porary measure,"’ he said.

An oil slick originating from the
sunken ship is fed by a supply of
more than one million litres of
bunker fuel and 345 litres of diesel
oil.

Said Costello, ‘‘Our first order
of business is to do an investiga-
tion of the wreck and find out
where the oil is coming from and
how the ship is sitting. From
reports we got from the coast
guard when they interviewed peo-
ple involved, the ship is apparent-
ly holed and apparently a mast
came down and caused more

See Chinese page 5

REACHING EVERY DOOR ON THE NORTH SHORE SINCE 1969