Ship must have sank:
"Container ship adrift again off Canadian coast" by RUDY KELLY and ROB GILLIES
PRINCE RUPERT, British Columbia (AP) — A disabled Russian container ship carrying hundreds of tons of fuel is adrift again but officials said Saturday there is no immediate risk of it reaching shore, hitting rocks and causing a spill.
Royal Canadian Navy Lt. Greg Menzies said a tow line from the Coast Guard ship Gordon Reid got detached, but he noted that the Russian vessel is now 24 nautical miles away from shore. Menzies said efforts are under way to get the line re-attached.
The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Spar were also on to assist if needed, while an ocean-going tugboat was expected to arrive in the area late Saturday or early Sunday.
The Russian carrier Simushir lost power off Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, as it made its way from Everett in Washington state to Russia.
What was a Russian tanker doing in an AmeriKan port?
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Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper tweeted his thanks for the "great work" the Gordon Reid ship is doing off the coast.
The ship was drifting northwest in stormy seas Friday, away from shore, after losing power late Thursday, officials said.
The fear of oil spills is especially acute in British Columbia, where residents remember the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989. Such worries have fed fierce opposition — particularly from environmentalists and Canada's native tribes — to a current proposal to build a pipeline that would carry oil from Canada's Alberta oil sands to a terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia, on the Pacific Coast for shipment to Asia.
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The president of the Council of the Haida Nation had warned Friday that a storm coming into the area was expected to push the ship onto the rocky shore, but later President Pete Lantin said their worst fears have subsided.
"If the weather picks up it could compromise that, but as of right now there is a little sense of relief that we might have averted catastrophe here," Lantin said.
About 5,000 people live on the island and fish for food nearby, Lantin said.
Roger Girouard, an assistant commissioner with the Canadian Coast Guard, said their top concern was the fuel and diesel oil onboard and the risk that the ship could hit the rocks and break apart.
He earlier said if the ship did come apart the rough seas would break up the oil "so we would have an ally there. It's cold weather so we don't have a lot of migratory species right at the moment."
He said they have been already moving assets to the region to respond should the break apart and spill.
MacDougall said the Simushir, which is about 440 feet long, was carrying "a range of hydrocarbons, mining materials and other related chemicals." That included 400 tons of bunker oil and 50 tons of diesel.
A spokesman for Russian shipping firm SASCO, the owners of the vessel, said it is carrying 298 containers of mining equipment in addition to heavy bunker fuel as well as diesel oil onboard for the voyage.
The U.S. Coast Guard had a helicopter on standby in the event that 10 crew members need to be pulled off the ship. Officials said the injured captain was evacuated by helicopter, but they were given no further medical details....
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Also see:
Category 4 Hurricane Gonzalo bears down on Bermuda
Powerful Hurricane Gonzalo pummels Bermuda
Power out, trees fall as hurricane crosses Bermuda
Well, I'm off for a while.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"In the Atlantic, Newfoundland also dodged a weather bullet on Sunday.
Hurricane Gonzalo struck a glancing blow to the Canadian province before racing out into the North Atlantic. Gonzalo battered Bermuda over the weekend, knocking down trees and power lines but causing no deaths or serious injuries.
Gonzalo passed over southeastern Newfoundland early Sunday, dumping heavy rain, but the fast-moving storm left little trace besides pounding surf. The Canadian Hurricane Centre said about 1.9 inches of rain was recorded at St. John’s International Airport on Sunday morning.
Bermuda’s prime minister, Michael Dunkley, said cleanup efforts were going smoothly there. The United States, Britain, and other nations have offered assistance....
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Also see: Tug towing disabled Russian container ship to port
