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page 2, January 12, 1977 - North Shere News | _ oe, 7 | eects operas te tele” pais ANNA AAA

The recent rash of oil-tanker incidents on the East Coast is a dramatic example of what’s in store for us on the West Coast. And it’s coming to us soon. It’s only a matter of time until one of the Very Large Crude Catziers (VLCC’s) or Ultra

Large Crude Carriers (ULCC’s), as they are known i:

with single screws, in most cases, for. reasons of econ- omy, they are helpless in the face of a machinery break- . down—and they have break- downs with distressing fre- - quency. A 250,000 ton tanker has a deadweight (the weight

the shipping trade, encounters some

type of difficulty off our fragile coastline.

Most people simply do not understand the tanker situation. They have difficulty compre- hending the size of the spills involved, and that is The size of the VLCC’s and.

understandable.

ULCC’s is difficult enough to comprehend.

A 200,000 tonner—a tanker with a capacity of two hundred thousand tons of crude oil—is small potatoes, a mere VLCC. The one that I have the measurements for is over 1,000 feet long—a fifth of a mile—is 157 feet wide, and riding empty it’s 96 feet from the rail to the water.

thin steel of their hulls. Most tankers are registered under ‘flags of convenience,’ which, because of their lax safety requirements and manning clauses and pay ‘scales, attract ship owners from all over the world. Most of the tankers involved in the disasters of the last week

of the oil plus the weight of the ship) of 350 to 400,000 tons. It takes miles to stop

one, and when docking if the ©

impact speed is -merely one-quarter of a knot (25 feet per minute) both ship and jetty will be damaged, witha good chance of spill, expios- ion or fire.

Tankers steam constantly over the oceans of the world. Turnaround time in ports is a day or two at most, and asa

_result the crews serve six

months or more without leave. They fill up at oil fields and go wherever _ their owners can get the best price for the oil—often changing destinations two or three

and appliances. Everything in the store is

That’s almost ten stories... have been of Liberian regis- times during ne ies a The Suggested Clearance. and that's fo the deck, not ty. ll waters and entering [| SAAR Value Prios Oil tankers come in.all sizes, Remember the Arrow? unfamiliar ports, and both _39’’ Grange Hollywood beds 119.95 from the small ones that This Liberian-registry tanker Crew and master are often wast me tt etn 4faa service the B.C. coast to the grounded i in Chedabucto Bay fatigued and careless. 04 range doubie beds 159.95

cc’ in Nova Scotia in 1970. It . . ly : ( ee sof urge as tons, broke in two and spilled Thor Heyerdahl wrote, and _ Sealy queen size beds 229.95 example. There are over thousands of tons of oil into bacques | Cousteau echo’ Sealy. Redi-beds in double size 399.95

i i the water, creating a deadly that the oceans of the wore .

he oneone of the world. -environment for teany thou- are already polluted with oil. : deluxe Redi- beds. by’ Sealy 449.95

Almost 400 are as big as our example or bigger, with 26 over 400,000 tons.

STEEL EGGS As Aristotle Onassis and

sands of sea birds and other .

forms of marine life. It cost us a lot, both ecologically and

financially, and it was a small - tanker. Very small, by today’s

Tarry chunks are being found

‘in the middle of the Pacific, and slicks are commonpiace. |

Part of the oil comes from accidental spills, but some

‘ standards. Owned by are due to carelessness, and platform rockers in ass’t colors 109.95 $797 Stavros Niarchos and the Qnassis, it had been func- Some are deliberate. a ; | a $augo7 other oil shipping magnates tioning with aimost none of : recliners in naugahyde vinyl 169.95 116 have discovered, it is much jts navigation . equipment DELIBERATE SPILLS . a . $ 9 more profitable to ship oil in’ serviceable, The radar had : swivel rockers in velvet fabric 199.95 138” larger tankers. Crew costs ceased to function an hour Carelessness occurs when deluxe recliners by Vogel 239.95 $167" remain about the same as for before the ship struck, the valves are left open and : . 97 a smaller vessel, fuel costs echo sounder had not worked machinery leaks. Deliberate Berkline wall-a-way recliners 329.95 $228 increase only marginally and for two months,

the extra cost of building the behemoth tankers is soon

: ; Suggested Clearance amortized. Some tankers pay The officer on watch had no tanker captains have been . for themselves in a year...not Jicense, and the commission known to dump thousands of Value Price surprising when you under- of enquiry said none of the tons of oil directly into the . : Pa 97 stand that a very profitable crew Saad. any navigational sea when caught with an 2 pe. drop back lounge suites 319.95, *218 voyage can net a profit of $4 skill except the master, ‘‘and overloaded ship in severe sofa & loveseat in plush orlon 549.95 $3977 - mulion. there are even doubts about seas and heavy weather, in . : r Tankers are large, fragile SLOW TO STOP | 7 in rust herculon fabric 699.95 459” steel eggs. They have a short Tankers are dangerous, 4 pc. tuxedo stvle suite : life expectancy, as the |The VLCC’s and ULCC’s’ whether full or empty. The - P ve S : sulphur dioxide content of are so large that they are explosive nature of empty (includes sofa , chair, 749.95 $5477 the oil quickly corrodes the difficult to handle. Equipped tankers was demonstrated by loveseat & ottoman) . 4 = the explosion in Los Angeles y a week or two ago, in which transitional stvie in rich chocolate _ : several people were killed brown 100% acrylic 1,099.95 $749” and much damage done. The . a empty tanker exploded like a Suggested Clearance i small nuclear device. “Value Price . a —_. — Oil is poisonous. Oil-fouled double pedestal walnut desk 149.95 $1097 5 beaches take years, maybe < VERIFIED CIRCULATION N 46,000 centuries, to recover. Ninety: | 5 pc. chrome & glass dinette suite 239.95 1447s five per cent or more of all | a 2 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 seabirds affected by oil spills 3 pc. modern bedroom suite in >, $1677 : OFFICE/NEWS: (604) 980-0511 die; and the mortality rate of walnut finish » 49.95 CLASSIFIED: 980-3464 CIRCULATION: 986-1337 those taken ‘to treatment 5 pc. early American bedroom centres is over 90 per cent. suite in solid wood = Publisher Peter Speck There’s no way to take the oil - (includes hutch, mirror & | : . off a bird without removing | nite tables) ’ 899 $6467" g Associate Publisher Bob Graham/Managing Editor its natural waterproding. ables “ -95 . Noel Wright/News Guillermo Lam/Photos Ells- and for marine birds this, of 9 pc. solid rock ma le dinin r 7. «OE worth Dickson/Production Marna Leiren/Advertis-’ course, is fatal. P suite P g oom 1,199.95 *848 7 Ing Kristi Vidler/Classified Berni Hilliard/Circala-

and the

_gyrocompass had a perman-

ent error of three degrees.

tion Yvonne Chapman/Administration Barbara

Haywoud/Accounts Sylvia

Sorensen.

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an

independent

community newspaper and

repistered under Part 111, Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Customs and Excise Act, is published each Wednesday by the North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore.

Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885.

ENTIRE CONTENTS COPYRIGHT © 1977 NORTH SHORE FREE PRESS LTD. All vights reserved,

spills occur when the. oily residue from tank washings is pumped overboard, and

Last week a pilot took a crude carricr through the Straits of Juan de Fuca against the orders of the Coast Guard, in the dead of night. One man’s foolishness could have cost us all a great deal. It’s only a matter of time before one of the tankers spills its black death here, and the results are too dreadful to comprehend. | hope we can come to grips with that problem before it occurs.

A

ed reek Macatha