- Email: [email protected]
Sonic booms in the sea
Peace River destroyed about 90 per cent of the fish population, some 1-2 million fish. The Florida Department of Pollution Control has announced a $20m suit against the company for the recent spillage and has also asked for a temporarT injunction ordering Cities Service to 'take several immediate restorative and corrective actions and to cease all phosphate processing operations until the complete and immediate inspection of all their retention dams'. Freshwater fish affected include bass. blue gill. bullhead and channel catfish. Gan and mudfish may also have suffered. Snook, flounder, tarpon and blue crabs in the estuary, are also at risk. Aquatic plants were severely damaged. A full estimate of the consequences of this spillage is not yet available, but recovery is expected to be slow. After the 1967 accident, recovery of the aquatic fauna took 15 months.
Dutch Oil Spill The Norwegian supertanker Elizabeth Knudsen collided with the Liberian tanker Theogenitor off the Hook of Holland on.December 28 and was holed and stranded 6 km from the north pier. Oil was escaping but Dutch government vessels equipped with spraying equipment treated the oil slick with chemical dispersants. The tanker was later refloated with the help of nine tugs after 35.000 tons of the ship's cargo of 210.000 tons had been transferred to the tanker Philidora. The Elizabeth Knudsen was taken to Europoort for unloading the rest of its cargo. The emptying of the leaking compartment and prompt treatment of the oil spillage prevented any environmental damage.
The End of the Story The succession of tanker collisionsand wrecks in the English Channel last March left navigation hazards which have been receiving attention ever since. Trinity House is now withdrawing one of the wreck warning lights off Folkestone marking the position of the Texaco Caribbean. Brandenburg and Niki which sank there because the wrecks have now been largely cleared. Great care has been taken to prevent the release of oil from the wrecks and no significantoil pollution has been caused as a result of the clearance operations. The Pacific Glory. which was also in collision in the Channel in October 1970. has been temporarily repaired in Holland and has been towed to Hong Kong for the repairs to be completed.
2.;
Compensation for Pollution at Sea The maximum compensation payable as a result of damage caused by oil pollution from a ship has been more than doubled to $30m b v an international convention signed in Brussels in December. The convention provides for the creation of a fund supplementing the provisions of a civil liability convention in cases of maritime oil pollution. Contributions to the fund will be made by oil importers situated on the territories of states which adhere to the convention. The attempt by the State of Florida to impose unlimited liability on oil pollutors for the cost of making good any damage caused by spillages has failed, however. A Federal judicial panel has declared unconstitutional a law passed by the Florida legislature to this effect. Shipping interests mounted a campaign against the law because of the impossibility of getting insurance coverage for operations in Florida under these terms. The Brussels Conference also concluded negotiations on a new international convention covering transport by sea of nuclear materials. This will exempt shipowners from paying for insurance if the operator of the installation is already insured. Previously both parties had to buy insurance coverage.
Sonic Booms in the Sea Whether or not sonic booms will have the slightest effect on marine life is still unknown. So far it has been assumed that penetration of the shock-wave energy would be so slight and damping so rapid, that so far as supersonic aircraft are concerned the welfare of organisms in the sea could safely be ignored (Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2, 101-2. 1971). Some practical tests have now been carried out by the United States Navy. Sonic booms laid down by navy fighter aircraft flying at Mach 1.1-1.2 have been observed below the sea by means of a string of a hydrophones 60 m long dangling from a surface ship. The underwater booms have the ~ m e spectral content as the boom in air and travel down the string with the velocity of sound in water. The decay rate was about as the power -1.5 of the depth below the surface. According to R. J. Urick in the Oceanic Instrtm;entation Reporter, the results suggest that the underwater sonic boom is a wave scattered by the rough surface of the sea into the water beneath. The decay rate is such as to make the boom imperceptible against the ambient noise background at depths greater than 1.000-2.000 ft below the surface in the deep sea.
Dutch Oil Spill The Norwegian supertanker Elizabeth Knudsen collided with the Liberian tanker Theogenitor off the Hook of Holland on.December 28 and was holed and stranded 6 km from the north pier. Oil was escaping but Dutch government vessels equipped with spraying equipment treated the oil slick with chemical dispersants. The tanker was later refloated with the help of nine tugs after 35.000 tons of the ship's cargo of 210.000 tons had been transferred to the tanker Philidora. The Elizabeth Knudsen was taken to Europoort for unloading the rest of its cargo. The emptying of the leaking compartment and prompt treatment of the oil spillage prevented any environmental damage.
The End of the Story The succession of tanker collisionsand wrecks in the English Channel last March left navigation hazards which have been receiving attention ever since. Trinity House is now withdrawing one of the wreck warning lights off Folkestone marking the position of the Texaco Caribbean. Brandenburg and Niki which sank there because the wrecks have now been largely cleared. Great care has been taken to prevent the release of oil from the wrecks and no significantoil pollution has been caused as a result of the clearance operations. The Pacific Glory. which was also in collision in the Channel in October 1970. has been temporarily repaired in Holland and has been towed to Hong Kong for the repairs to be completed.
2.;
Compensation for Pollution at Sea The maximum compensation payable as a result of damage caused by oil pollution from a ship has been more than doubled to $30m b v an international convention signed in Brussels in December. The convention provides for the creation of a fund supplementing the provisions of a civil liability convention in cases of maritime oil pollution. Contributions to the fund will be made by oil importers situated on the territories of states which adhere to the convention. The attempt by the State of Florida to impose unlimited liability on oil pollutors for the cost of making good any damage caused by spillages has failed, however. A Federal judicial panel has declared unconstitutional a law passed by the Florida legislature to this effect. Shipping interests mounted a campaign against the law because of the impossibility of getting insurance coverage for operations in Florida under these terms. The Brussels Conference also concluded negotiations on a new international convention covering transport by sea of nuclear materials. This will exempt shipowners from paying for insurance if the operator of the installation is already insured. Previously both parties had to buy insurance coverage.
Sonic Booms in the Sea Whether or not sonic booms will have the slightest effect on marine life is still unknown. So far it has been assumed that penetration of the shock-wave energy would be so slight and damping so rapid, that so far as supersonic aircraft are concerned the welfare of organisms in the sea could safely be ignored (Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2, 101-2. 1971). Some practical tests have now been carried out by the United States Navy. Sonic booms laid down by navy fighter aircraft flying at Mach 1.1-1.2 have been observed below the sea by means of a string of a hydrophones 60 m long dangling from a surface ship. The underwater booms have the ~ m e spectral content as the boom in air and travel down the string with the velocity of sound in water. The decay rate was about as the power -1.5 of the depth below the surface. According to R. J. Urick in the Oceanic Instrtm;entation Reporter, the results suggest that the underwater sonic boom is a wave scattered by the rough surface of the sea into the water beneath. The decay rate is such as to make the boom imperceptible against the ambient noise background at depths greater than 1.000-2.000 ft below the surface in the deep sea.