Maritime Disasters

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France's Total among 15 in the dock over Erika oil spill

PARIS, Feb 12, 2007 (AFP) - France's first trial over a major environmental disaster opened on Monday to decide whether oil giant Total and other parties bear responsibility for the massive oil spill from the Erika shipwreck in 1999.

A 25-year-old rusting tanker, Erika was carrying 30,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil when it sank off France's Brittany coast on December 12, 1999, polluting vast stretches of the Atlantic coastline and killing thousands of seabirds.

Fifteen parties including Total, the tanker owners, a charter company, a vessel classification firm and maritime authorities are in the dock on various charges of endangering lives, causing pollution or failing to respond to a disaster when the trial opens at 1:30 pm (1230 GMT).

Total executive Bernard Thouillin and two of the company's affiliates -- Total Transport Corporation and Total Petroleum Services -- are to answer accusations that they chartered a tanker of dubious seaworthiness in order to meet a tight deadline for delivery of the cargo to Italy.

If convicted of causing maritime pollution, Total could be fined up to one million euros (1.3 million dollars) while a conviction on the charge of complicity to endanger lives carries a maximum one-year prison term and a 15,000-euro fine.

The French state is seeking 153 million euros in damages to cover the cost of the cleanup and recovery of the wreckage while many of the 70 plaintiffs in the case are demanding hefty compensation.

A Total spokesman voiced confidence that the oil firm would be cleared and emphasized that 11 other parties are to come under scrutiny during the trial.

"We consider the allegations to be groundless," said Total spokesman Charles Edouard Ansray. "We are awaiting the outcome of the trial that is to assign responsibility."

The Italian owner of the Erika, Giuseppe Savarese, and his manager Antonio Pollara are to answer charges of negligence and jeopardizing the lives of the 26 Indian crew members of the Erika that broke in two in heavy seas and later sank.

The Indian captain of the vessel, Karun Mathur, has also been charged but he was not in court.

The Italian maritime certification company RINA, a member of its board Gianpiero Ponasso, and the co-owners of the Selmont vessel charter company, Mauro Clemente and Alessandro Ducci are also cited.

The first session of the trial opened with arguments from RINA's lawyer that the company can only be judged in Malta.

Four men responsible for maritime safety and rescue -- Eric Geay, Michel de Monval, Jean-Loup Velot and Jean-Luc Lejeune -- are charged with failing to respond to a disaster.

It has taken seven years for magistrate Dominique de Talance to investigate the Erika disaster in which 20,000 tonnes of fuel leaked into the ocean, dealing a severe blow to local tourist and fishing industries.

The total cost of the damage has been estimated at over one billion euros.

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18 children, 4 teachers drown, more missing, when boat capsizes in India
20 February 2007

COCHIN, India (AP) - At least 18 children and four teachers drowned when a boat capsized in a river in the southern Indian state of Kerala, a local official said. Another 16 children remained missing.

Three boats were carrying more than 100 students and staff down the Periyar River in the Thattekkad bird sanctuary on Tuesday when one boat capsized, said Mohammad Haneesh, a top official of the district. All the children were younger than 11.

As darkness fell, 16 children were still missing, and 10 had been admitted to a local hospital, he said. Authorities were flocking to the scene to help in the search.

It was not clear how many children were in the boat that capsized.

The Thattekkad sanctuary is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of Cochin, Kerala's commercial hub.

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Ferry catches fire in Indonesia; nearly 300 people rescued
By IRWAN FIRDAUS
22 February 2007

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A mother begged a cargo hand to take her 18-month-old daughter after fire engulfed an Indonesian ferry Thursday, then jumped into the sea along with hundreds of other passengers. Sixteen people died and scores were injured.

Heru, who goes by one name, said he tried to scale a rope with the toddler as smoke billowed around him, but was knocked into the water by a falling passenger. He saw the woman clinging to a water cooler and swam toward her.

"The baby was crying 'Mama! Mama! and she insisted I hand over the child," he said. Fifteen minutes later, the two disappeared beneath the dark waves. "Now they're gone."

The Levina 1 was carrying 300 passengers when a pre-dawn blaze broke out in a truck on the car deck hours after the ferry left the capital, Jakarta, for the northwestern island of Bangka, port official Sato Bisri said. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Remarkably, 275 people were rescued from the Java Sea and the 2,000-ton vessel's charred hull by fishing boats, warships and helicopters, averting a second major maritime disaster in Indonesia the last several months. In late December, a ferry sank in a storm in the Java Sea, killing more than 400 people.

At least 17 people were still missing following Thursday's fire, Navy spokesman Hendra Pakan. The search for survivors continued after darkness fell.

"It was terrifying," said Yas Rijal, 33, who was with his wife and son on the upper deck when the fire broke out. "The crew ordered us to put on yellow life vests and we jumped."

Rosiah, 28, who also goes by one name, was among those who did not get a life vest. But as the ferry's deck got hotter, she became increasingly desperate and plunged into the sea with her 5-month-old son.

"I just wanted save my baby," she said, weeping. "I didn't think of the risk."

"We sank for a long time and by the time we came to the surface, he wasn't breathing," Rosiah said. "He was dead, but I couldn't let go. I held onto him for what felt like an hour before being rescued by a fisherman."

She said she did not know what happened to her husband and two other children.

One survivor told AP Television News he was sleeping when the fire started.

"When I woke up, I saw a big fire and I just jumped into the water. All I was thinking was how I had to survive," Tarjani said.

Sunarjo, another survivor, said he swam all morning before being rescued. "If I hadn't torn off my pants I'd probably be dead now," he said.

Most survivors were taken to the port at Jakarta, about 50 miles from where the ship caught fire. The injured were taken to hospitals or cared for at a makeshift treatment center at the port.

Transportation Minister Hatta Rajasa said the ferry carried 300 passengers, but the ship's log indicated there were 228 passengers, 42 trucks and eight cars on board. Tallies of ferry passengers are often incomplete and boats overloaded in Indonesia.

In the vast nation of 17,000 islands, ferries are the cheapest and most popular form of public transportation. But safety standards are poor, leading to hundreds of deaths each year.

Last year, Indonesia recorded more deaths from disasters than any other country, according to a U.N. tally, with a massive earthquake on Java killing nearly 6,000 -- the highest death toll in a single event.

Since December, flooding and landslides on Java and Sumatra islands have killed more than 200 people and driven hundreds of thousands of residents from their homes.

Days after the December ferry sinking, a passenger plane operated by a budget airline crashed into the ocean, killing all 102 people aboard.

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Charred ferry sinks near Jakarta port, as death toll from fire jumps to 42
By ALI KOTARUMALOS
25 February 2007

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Authorities were searching on Monday for three people still missing after the charred wreckage of an Indonesian ferry sank while investigators and journalists were aboard inspecting the damage from a fire last week.

The gutted wreckage had been anchored near Jakarta's port when it suddenly listed and sank with 16 people on board, several of the journalists said. A cameraman was killed, while another and two police were missing. Four people were seriously injured.

"We all rushed for our own safety as the ship suddenly tilted and submerged," Mardianto, a journalist who goes by one name, told his el-Shinta radio station. "I was on the third deck, and had to jump into the water."

The accident occurred hours after fishermen and navy officers recovered the bodies of 22 people killed in Thursday's fire, raising that death toll to 42. The bodies included a teenager and a baby.

The Levina 1 was carrying at least 330 passengers when the fire broke out in a truck on the car deck, sending hundreds of people jumping into the sea, some clinging to young children. More than 290 people were rescued in waters 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Jakarta in Indonesia's second maritime disaster in recent months. In December, a ferry sank in a storm, killing more than 400.

Divers searching the sunken ship found none of the victims from Sunday's accident, said Dadang Arkuni, chief of the Jakarta Search and Rescue Agency. "The bodies usually float to the sea surface after six hours," he said.

"It happened so quickly," Lt. Col. Hendra Pakan told The Associated Press. "The ship almost completely disappeared into the sea."

Eko Widodo, a MetroTV reporter, said the ferry started sinking about five minutes after journalists got on board. He said he saw the missing cameraman struggling to maintain his footing while holding onto his camera.

"We told him to throw the camera away but he did not want to," Widodo told his TV station.

He said authorities provided life vests but the reporters chose not to wear them.

"It was our own mistake," he said. "I nearly drowned ... but eventually pulled my body up to the surface and then was helped by another man."

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Indonesia ferry disaster toll rises, president eyes better safety

JAKARTA, Feb 28, 2007 (AFP) - The death toll from Indonesia's latest ferry disaster rose to 54 by Wednesday as the country's president told passenger boat operators to improve safety.

The latest body found was a journalist missing after the Levina I ferry, which caught fire Thursday last week, killing scores of people, sank near a harbour in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

The body was retrieved Tuesday, the same day rescuers found the bodies of two policemen who also disappeared when the listing, charred vessel sank. All three had boarded the wreck to investigate its remnants.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself took a ferry trip Tuesday amid criticism of the country's transport sector following three major disasters since December, which have killed hundreds of people.

The president called on passenger boat operators to improve safety, the Kompas newspaper reported.

"During the trip we have seen and asked other passengers, and it turns out there is still a lot that needs to be fixed so as to provide a better service for them," Yudhoyono was quoted as saying.

The president said he had seen for himself breaches of safety regulations. He also called on ferry operators to check the cargo on their vessels more thoroughly.

"There should be no vehicle carrying dangerous materials or goods," he reportedly said.

The Levina I had been towed to just outside Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port from the site of the fire when it sank Sunday with investigators on board.

Estimates suggest more than 350 people were on the passenger and vehicle ferry when flames engulfed it, though the exact number remains unclear.

About 250 were rescued, more than 50 are believed to be missing and the number of confirmed dead is 54. The search for bodies continues.

"Five navy ships are combing the waters around the Seribu islands today," Hendra Pakan, a spokesman for the Western Fleet, said Wednesday, referring to a series of islands north of Jakarta.

Search operations are to end Thursday, Bambang Karnoyudho, the head of the agency responsible for the effort, told the Detikcom online news service.

Police detained a number of people following the disaster and the government revoked the ferry operator's permit for declaring fewer passengers on its manifest than it was actually carrying.

Recent air, sea and rail accidents in Indonesia have been blamed on the lax enforcement of safety regulations, poor maintenance and a lack of investment in transport infrastructure.

Ferries are a crucial link between the archipelago nation's 17,000 islands and frequently carry more people than officially acknowledged.

[ZZ-II]

think the most famous ship misfortune was the Titanic-disaster or?

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Marooned tanker poses risk to Spanish shoreline: ecologists

MADRID, March 18, 2007 (AFP) - Ecological associations on Sunday warned of a potential risk to Spain's southern coastline from an oil tanker in the Strait of Gibraltar carrying 40,000 tonnes of fuel which ran aground in the area.

Greenpeace and the Verdemar ecological pressure group demanded authorities take action to extract the fuel after the Greek tanker Samothraki ran aground about a kilometre off Gibraltar and was towed to port Saturday in the British dependent territory.

The Gibraltar government said inspection of the vessel had shown it to be in good condition and added that its cargo posed no risk of leakage and no danger to the environment.

But a Greenpeace spokesman told Spain's Europa Press news agency that the incident "again throwns into sharp relief the constant dangers" to which the Bay of Algeciras abutting Gibraltar is exposed.

According to the organisation, an average year sees between 4,000 and 5,000 vessels sail through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Spain is highly sensitive to the risk posed by vessels negotiating its coastline following the major environmental disaster which struck four years ago when the Prestige oil tanker went down off the northwestern region of Galicia.

On that occasion, the worst environmental disaster Spain has known, some 64,000 tonnes of fuel leaked out and polluted beaches as far away as southwestern France.

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Greece fines owners, captain of sunken cruise ship for marine pollution
18 June 2007

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The owners, operator and captain of a cruise ship that hit the rocks off the island Santorini and sank were fined a total of $1.57 million Monday for polluting the Aegean Sea.

The Sea Diamond leaked an estimated 300 tons of fuel into the sea since sinking off the island two months ago.

Nearly 1,600 people, Nearly 1,600 people, most of them Americans, including two dozen students from North Carolina, were evacuated from the Cypriot-owned ship on April 5, but two French tourists are missing and presumed drowned. The Sea Diamond sank the next day, with some 450 tons of fuel and lubricants in its tanks.

The ship's owners, Louis Group, operators Louis Cruise Lines and Greek captain Yiannis Marinos were fined for polluting the sea and the coast near the shipwreck and failing to submit a final action plan to pump the remaining fuel from the hulk, the Merchant Marine Ministry said.

A ministry announcement also accused the companies and captain of not monitoring the effect of the pollution on marine life in an environmentally sensitive area.

The ministry added that Santorini port authorities already have imposed additional daily fines of $12,000 on the shipowners for pollution -- adding up to some $750,000 in the past two months.

Marinos, 35, and five other crew members are still facing criminal charges of negligence. Greek authorities and Louis Cruise Lines blamed the shipwreck on human error.

A Louis Group spokesman said the company would not comment on the fine for now.

But Michalis Maratheftis defended the company's clean-up efforts, handled by a private Greek contractor.

"Our people are doing an exceptional job," he said. "The area is perfectly clean."

Vassilis Mamaloukas, an environmental engineer leading the clean-up for contractor Environmental Protection Engineering SA, said the operation is going "very smoothly."

"The operation on the beaches is close to completion," he told The Associated Press.

"My personal assessment is that most of the fuel has already seeped out of the tanks, judging by the quantities we have picked up on the surface. We have collected some 250-300 tons, and a quantity has also been gathered on the coast."

Mamaloukas said the marine clean-up "will take months," using a floating boom deployed round the shipwreck.

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31 Dead As Boats Sink in North India
23 June 2007

LUCKNOW, India (AP) - Twelve members of a wedding party were among 31 feared drowned overnight in two separate boat accidents in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Saturday.

"Two passenger boats sank killing 31 people in two different incidents," Anupam Shashank, a senior government official told the Associated Press from the state capital Lucknow. He said only five bodies had been recovered.

In the first incident, 19 people drowned when an overcrowded boat carrying 25 people sank midstream in the Yamuna river in Kaushambhi district, 15 miles southeast of Lucknow.

Six people swam to safety but the others drowned, Shashank said.

In the second incident a boat carrying 17 members of a wedding party sank in the Ganges river near Mirzapur, 200 miles southeast of Lucknow.

"Twelve people are feared dead and five swam to safety," said Deputy Inspector General S.N. Sabat. "Initial reports suggest that the boat was overloaded. Besides people, it was carrying marriage gifts, including a motorcycle and a double bed."

The bride and groom survived as they were traveling in another boat, he said.

Both accidents took place late Friday.

Boat accidents are common in impoverished Uttar Pradesh state. Boats used to ferry passengers are generally poorly maintained and people seldom use life jackets.

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Container ship whose grounding sparked looting frenzy has been refloated off British coast
9 July 2007

LONDON (AP) - A container ship that ran aground off southern England and drew thousands of looters has been refloated, a coast guard official said Monday.

Salvage workers spent the morning draining 58,000 tons of water from the MSC Napoli, said Maritime and Coast Guard Agency spokesman Fred Caygill.

"It's come away, it's been turned around, and it's now facing out to sea," Caygill said. "The idea has been to refloat the vessel so that we can give divers the ability to check the hull integrity."

The ship was deliberately run aground off of England's Branscombe beach, about 165 miles southwest of London, during a violent storm in January. Its crew was rescued, but oil leaking from its engines killed thousands of sea birds, and more than 100 containers were washed ashore, where they were picked apart by looters.

The wreckage was eventually cleaned off the beach, the oil slick was contained, and the remaining containers were removed from the Napoli's deck.

A decision on what to do with the ship awaits the divers' survey of the hull.

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Some recent maritime disasters off Indonesia
11 July 2007
Associated Press

Recent Indonesian maritime disasters:

-- July 11: A passenger ship carrying 70 people disappears off eastern Indonesia after reporting engine failure in stormy seas. The bodies of two children are found drifting in nearby waters along with several survivors.

-- Feb. 22: Fire on a ferry carrying 330 people kills 42. Three days later, the charred vessel capsizes as accident investigators and journalists inspect it, killing one.

-- Dec. 29, 2006: A crowded Indonesian ferry breaks apart and sinks in the Java Sea during a violent storm, killing more than 400 people.

-- June 22, 2006: A ferry carrying 116 people capsizes in bad weather off western Sumatra island, but rescue teams recover almost all of the passengers.

-- April 18, 2006: A ferry carrying 60 people sinks in bad weather in eastern Indonesia, but nearly all are rescued or swim to shore.

-- March 25, 2006: A dozen people die when a large vessel carrying 21 people and a cargo of rice sinks in heavy seas off Sumatra island.

-- July 7, 2005: About 200 people die when a ferry capsizes in rough seas off eastern Indonesia.

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Greece unveils plan to protect ship passengers with bill of rights
11 July 2007

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece plans to introduce a bill of rights that would allow inconvenienced ship passengers to demand compensation from ferry companies, the government said Wednesday.

Legislation providing for a "passenger bill of rights" would be introduced in parliament in coming days, Merchant Marine Minister Manolis Kefaloyiannis said, and would take effect by month's end -- just in time for Greece's peak tourist season.

The provisions would apply to ferry and hydroplane passengers.

The bill of rights, modeled after established programs for air travelers, would grant passengers the right to claim compensation -- including money and free accommodation -- from coastal shipping companies for delayed or canceled boat trips and also for poor service.

The legislation would also require every passenger ship to have a medical doctor aboard.

Kefaloyiannis, who met Wednesday with Prime Minister Coastas Karamanlis, said companies could face fines of up to $687,100 if found to be in breach of the new rules. He also announced new investments for upgrading 11 ports around the country.

Greece expects more than 16 million visitors this year, and Kefaloyiannis said up to 7 million Greek and foreign tourists are expected to travel this summer by ship to island destinations from the three ports near Athens.

The largest of these, Piraeus, is chronically choked with passenger traffic in the summer months, while departures are frequently delayed because of tight scheduling and spotty ship maintenance.

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Spain Deals With Oil Spill Near Island
14 July 2007

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Fresh oil leaks from a recently sunken ship threatened Saturday to coat beaches and coves on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, even as crews cleared tons already spilled in the area, officials said.

Divers detected the latest oil leaks from the merchant ship "Don Pedro" after failed attempts to seal cracks in the wreck, said Josep Lliteres, environment director general for Spain's Balearic Islands.

The ship had been sailing from Ibiza to the eastern port city of Valencia when it hit rocks and sank Wednesday with 150 tons of fuel oil and 50 tons of gasoline on board.

Divers had tried to seal a crack which by Thursday had created an oil slick 3.5 miles long and a half-mile wide, Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez said.

The government has decided to try and remove the oil remaining inside the sunken vessel, rescue service spokeswoman Pilar Tejo said.

Cleanup crews, meanwhile, tried to prevent an environmental problem on the island, one of Spain's Mediterranean beauty spots, as summer holidays begin. Some 30 tons of oil were cleared by Saturday.

Three Ibiza beaches -- Talamanca, Ses Figueretes and Platja de Bossa -- were closed while crews cleaned up the spill.

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Pilot incarcerated for 2003 New York City ferry crash released after serving 15-month sentence
18 July 2007

NEW YORK (AP) - The former Staten Island ferry pilot who blacked out at the helm before a deadly 2003 crash has been released from prison, having served a 15-month sentence.

Assistant Capt. Richard Smith, 58, walked out of Devens Federal Medical center in Ayer, Massachusetts, on Tuesday and boarded a flight from Boston to New York, where he was reunited with his wife and loved ones.

"If I could say anything to take away the victims' pain, I would," Smith said shortly after leaving prison. "But there's nothing to say."

In what is considered the worst mass transit disaster in New York's history, Smith was piloting the Staten Island ferry in October 2003 when he passed out, suffering from fatigue and on painkillers. The ferry drifted out of control and crashed into a pier, killing 11 people and leaving dozens maimed and injured.

"Every time I think about it, I feel sick," Smith said.

After the accident, Smith fled the scene and tried to kill himself. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to negligent manslaughter and to lying to authorities about his medical history.

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Fewer passengers in SLeone boat capsize, little hope of survivors

FREETOWN, Aug 4, 2007 (AFP) - Authorities in Sierra Leone said Saturday there was little hope of finding any more survivors of a ferry disaster that killed at least 58 people, but indicated the loss of life was less than feared.

"The available information is that there were over 80 people in the boat and not the number that was initially thought," a police official said.

The Amunafa, a coastal ferry powered by outboard motors, which capsized in bad weather on Thursday night, was originally said by a Freetown port official to have been carrying some 200 passengers.

Two people were rescued alive, while 50 bodies were recovered by local fishermen and eight more by naval search teams.

Continuing bad weather threatened to put an end to the search by police and naval teams for bodies and eventual survivors.

"We are still combing the area in search of more bodies but so far, nothing has been found," the police official said.

"Raging winds and torrential rains are hampering our continued searches. If it contunues, we shall have to suspend the exercise," the official added.

"However, it is doubtful if anyone could survive in such climatic conditions," he said.

The flat-bottomed Amunafa, which was also carrying some 300 sacks of rice, went down off the mouth of the Little Scarcies river some 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of the capital on its way to the village of Rokumi, near the border with Guinea.

The accident, at the beginning of the rainy season, was one of the worst in the country in recent years.

Coastal ferries are frequently overloaded with both passengers and cargo, and the wreck of the Amunafa brought a new warning to proprietors who push captains into taking unacceptable risks for profit.

"We warn again the boat captains that they should not ply their vessels when the weather is bad, putting the lives of their passengers in danger," Tom Sisey of the Sierra Leone Boatowners Association said.

"Also they shall not overload their vessels, we will discipline those of our members who put the lives of their passengers in danger."

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Search team hunts Indonesian ferry survivors

JAKARTA, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - A search team hunted Saturday for survivors or victims of an Indonesian ferry that sank off Sulawesi island this week but it remained unknown how many people were missing, officials said.

At least 31 people were killed after passengers climbed to the roof of the 22-metre (-yard) Acita 03 seeking a better cell phone signal as it approached the coast, causing it to capsize Thursday evening.

The wooden boat had been heading from Tomea island to Bau Bau on Buton island, about 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) northeast of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

Media reports said 125 people were rescued following the accident that occurred just a few miles from Bau Bau.

"A search team comprising members of various groups are still looking for more victims of the accident. The ship captain does not know what the exact number of passengers was so we will just search for whatever we can get," a local policeman, Idwar, told AFP.

He said the search will push on for at least four more days.

Though only 60 people were officially on board, Indonesian ferries frequently carry far more passengers than the number registered.

Local officials have said around 188 people were on the ferry but so far no people have come forward to police to report missing relatives or friends.

The boat however was carrying passengers mostly from remote Tomea which has no landline phone connections and takes a day to reach by ferry from Bau Bau, 150 kilometres away, Idwar said.

The director of Bau Bau's main hospital, Aminuddin, said one patient being treated there died overnight and a body that workers were reportedly trying to free from the boat had not turned up so the death was unconfirmed.

Sea links are crucial in Indonesia, an archipelago nation of about 17,500 islands, but safety standards are frequently lax or not enforced and a string of deadly accidents have occurred in recent years.

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Some oil in San Francisco Bay spill will linger in water, be absorbed, authorities say
9 November 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Most of the oil that spilled into San Francisco Bay when a Chinese-owned container ship struck the Bay Bridge will never be retrieved and eventually will be absorbed into the ecosystem, authorities said.

The U.S. Coast Guard, which was heading the response to the 58,000-gallon (219,547-liter) spill, acknowledged miscommunication with local officials, but insisted Friday it did not impede their efforts to corral the oil.

Tides carried the heavy fuel that poured from the ship's oil tank under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific Ocean, fouling miles of coastline, closing several beaches, canceling weekend outdoor events and threatening thousands of birds and other marine life. It is believed to be the biggest spill in the bay since 1988.

The pilot who was guiding the container ship away from the Port of Oakland when it hit the bridge piling Wednesday said he had notified authorities immediately, and soon after alerted them that there was a sheen of oil on the water, his attorney said in a statement.

It took cleanup crews at least 90 minutes to respond, "which, of course, allowed the spill to spread," said the statement from Capt. John Cota's attorney, John F. Meadows.

Coast Guard logs of the day's events shows a response team on the scene in about a half hour, but it took much longer for oil-skimming vessels to arrive.

Rear Adm. Craig Bone conceded the agency should have done a better job keeping local authorities informed. "That is not acceptable," he said.

"What I want to impress upon people is, there was an immediate response, there was an immediate response to prevent further loss, there was an immediate response to gather as much as you possibly can," Bone said.

Oil skimmers and shoreline cleanup crews continued mopping up the damage. But as the oil spreads and dissipates, crews will find "diminishing returns" in their skimming efforts, said Barry McFarley, whose private recovery firm the O'Brien Group was hired by the ship's owner to handle its response to the spill.

On Friday, 9,500 gallons (35,960 liters) of oil had been sucked up. Lt. Rob Roberts, an investigator with the California Department of Fish and Game, said by the weekend most of the oil will be beyond containment and capture. Most of the fuel will dissolve into the water, but some globules could remain and cause problems for birds for months.

"Oil and feathers don't mix," said Yvonne Addassi, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Fish and Game. "This is not good for the birds."

Fish and Game officials said they have received hundreds of reports of oiled birds found on Bay Area beaches. So far, 73 live birds have been recovered and sent to a recovery center in Solano County; 17 were found dead.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency after meeting with state, federal and local officials overseeing the cleanup. The proclamation makes additional state personnel, funding and equipment available.

"This has done tremendous damage to the environment, to wildlife and to the birds," the governor said. "We have to clean up as quickly as possible."

City officials have said they were not given accurate information about the size of the spill until 9 p.m. Wednesday, more than 12 hours after the accident.

A new set of Coast Guard logs that surfaced Friday suggested the agency had concluded by 4:49 p.m. that 58,000 gallons had spilled, rather than the 140 gallons reported earlier. That contradicted a different Coast Guard log obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. It said that at 4:49 p.m., the Coast Guard believed 400 gallons had escaped.

Bone, the Coast Guard's top official in California, did not explain the delay.

The ship, called Cosco Busan, had just left the Port of Oakland and was proceeding to sea when it hit a tower beneath the western section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. It caused no structural damage to the span, but the vessel's hull suffered a large gash.

Investigators continue to puzzle over why the ship, one of hundreds that pass under the bridge each year, struck the tower. The pilot was one of the most experienced of the seamen who guide massive ships through the bay's treacherous waters.

"How does a ship, with that much space available, how does a ship hit the bridge?" Schwarzenegger asked Coast Guard officials as he was shown a map of the bay and where the vessel struck the bridge.

"That's what we're investigating," answered Coast Guard Capt. William Uberti, captain of the Port of San Francisco. "That shouldn't have happened."

According to chief investigator G. Ross Wheatley, the pilot and the shipping company could face civil penalties. He said Cota had answered every question asked of him.

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Russian oil tanker sinks in Black Sea storm

MOSCOW, Nov 11, 2007 (AFP) - Five-metre (16-feet) high waves smashed apart a Russian tanker on Sunday, spilling 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil off Ukraine's Black Sea coast in what environmentalists called an "ecological catastrophe."

Three other cargo ships including two carrying sulphur also sank as winds of up to 108 kilometres (67 miles) per hour battered the Kerch Strait separating the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov.

Fears were growing for the fate of 20 missing sailors as weather conditions worsened. Several other ships were also missing.

A total of 40 vessels were evacuated from the port of Kavkaz, a busy Russian commercial port some 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) south of Moscow, officials said. Ten others were forced to stay in the port because of the storm.

Some 300 kilometres further west, the high winds sank a cargo ship with 17 sailors on board. Two were rescued and 15 were still missing, officials said.

Five more sailors were missing from a ship that sank in the Kerch Strait.

"This is a major ecological catastrophe," Vladimir Slivyak, head of Ekozashchita, or Ecodefense, a Russian environmental group, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

"The pollution that has taken place will have to be cleaned up for a long time to come and the consequences will be felt for a year or even more."

Oleg Mitvol, head of the Russian government's environmental monitoring agency Rosprirodnadzor, said: "This is a serious environmental accident that will require a large amount of work.

"This problem may take a few years to solve," he said on the Vesti-24 news channel.

Prosecutors have opened a criminal inquiry for pollution, reports said.

The prow and the stern of the oil tanker, called Volgoneft-139, tore apart in the storm and "around 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil were spilled," a transport ministry spokeswoman told AFP.

Thirteen crew members were stranded in the stern and were later rescued but efforts to limit the oil spill were being hampered by harsh weather conditions, officials said.

A spokesman from the Emergency Situations Ministry said a second fuel oil tanker, the Volgoneft-123, had also been damaged in the storm and there had been an "insignificant spill" from the ship.

In November 2002, the Liberian oil tanker Prestige broke up and sank, spewing 64,000 tonnes of fuel oil into the waters and fouling thousands of kilometres (miles) along the Atlantic coast of France, Spain and Portugal.

Russia and Ukraine have set up a joint crisis centre to deal with Sunday's disaster and aircraft were on standby to fly to the area as soon as the weather allows, officials said.

The Volgoneft-139 was carrying fuel oil from the southern Russian city of Samara on the Volga River to an oil terminal in Ukraine, agency reports quoted a Russian official as saying.

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30,000 birds dead in Russian oil spill, regional governor says
12 November 2007

PORT KAVKAZ, Russia (AP) - More than 30,000 birds have been killed by the thousands of tons of oil that leaked after a heavy storm broke a tanker apart near the Black Sea, according to the governor of the disaster-hit region.

Countless other birds, weighed down by thick coatings of the fuel oil, hopped weakly along the shore or sat helplessly in the sand Monday. Workers with pitchforks and shovels started the backbreaking labor of gathering up vast clumps of oil mixed with sand and seaweed.

The spill from a tanker that split apart Sunday in the strait connecting the Black and Azov Seas is seen as potentially the worst environmental disaster in the region in recent years. It prompted criticism that many Russian tankers aren't seaworthy.

"Some 30,000 birds have died and it's not possible to count how many fish. The damages are so great that it's hard to assess. It can be equated with an ecological catastrophe," said Alexander Tkachev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, Monday, according to the Interfax news agency.

Another regional official, Sergei Zaitsev, was quoted as saying that much of the oil still on the water's surface could congeal in the wintry temperatures, forming globs that drop to the seabed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov to fly to the region to assess the disaster and clean-up efforts.

As many as 10 ships sank or ran aground in the storm, including the freighter Nakhichevan, which broke up and spilled a load of sulfur, officials said. The bodies of three sailors from the Nakhichevan washed up on shore Monday and rescuers were looking for five missing crewmen, said Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Sergei Kozhemyaka.

Two other freighters carrying sulfur also sank.

Russian environmental officials said the sulfur spilled from the freighters did not appear to pose any environmental danger. Jim Farr, a chemist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, compared the spill to dumping a load of sand in the water and smothering a reef, or covering a patch of grass with a blanket.

However, he said that it was difficult to know the long-term effects without better knowledge of the area's depth and currents.

The Volganeft-139 tanker was carrying about 4,800 metric tons (1.3 million gallons) of fuel oil when the storm sundered it. About half its load has leaked out already, officials estimated. The craft's 13 crew members were rescued.

Alexei Knizhnikov, head of the World Wildlife Federation's Russian oil and gas program, said the Volganeft-139 was constructed for river use and was unfit to endure severe weather at sea.

"In the Kerch Strait, river vessels and sea vessels change cargoes, as sea vessels cannot enter the Don and Volga rivers because of small water draft. But vessels constructed for rivers cannot stand strong sea storms," he said.

Anatoly Yanhuck, a regional coast guard officer, said workers would begin pumping oil from the tanker once the weather improves, then tow the ship to port. Investigators would be looking at the actions of the ship's captain, but he said the weather appeared to have been worse than forecast.

Vesti 24 television on Sunday reported the sinking of a Russian freighter carrying metal near the port of Sevastopol on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Two members of its 16-man crew drowned and one was missing, it said.

Maxim Stepanenko, a regional prosecutor, told Vesti 24 that captains had been warned Saturday about the stormy conditions. He said the Volganeft-139 -- designed during Soviet times to transport oil on rivers -- was not built to withstand a fierce storm.

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Reports: ship captains ignored Black Sea storm warning that resulted in oil spill
20 November 2007

MOSCOW (AP) - Two Russian officials suggested Tuesday that the captains of the ships that sank or ran aground during a fierce storm in the Black Sea were to blame for the accidents, Russian news agencies reported.

The storm Nov. 11 wrecked an oil freighter in the Kerch Strait separating Russia and Ukraine, resulting in a spill of 2,000 metric tons (560,000 gallons) of fuel oil that soiled miles of coastline and killed thousands of birds. The storm battered almost a dozen vessels in the strait.

Nikolai Lityuk, the acting head of the regional Emergency Situations Ministry, was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying that another 42 vessels that had sailed into the sea after forecasters issued a storm warning were not damaged.

"The decision has been made by the captains of the vessels, who had blind faith in sheer luck. However, the final answer on the extent of guilt will be given by investigators," Lityuk was quoted as saying.

Alexander Bedritsky, the head of the federal meteorological service Rosgidromet, said forecasters gave ships plenty of warning.

"The warning was issued with ample advance notice -- 10 hours. It's important not only to have prompt issuance of a warning but also prompt use of this information," he was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying.

Officials have called the oil spill an environmental disaster that could inflict lasting damage on marine life.