Should ships carrying loose deck containers be allowed to steam flat out towards a cyclone whilst traveling 7 km offshore from a pristine national park ??? 
..The white sands of Moreton Island are black and stinking. The mess (oil spill) is now spreading to the Sunshine coast....You hear about this stuff happening overseas and cringe. When it happens in your own back yard its absolutely sickening.....
News- Moreton Island, Bribie Island,and parts of the Sunshine Coast have now been officially declared "disaster areas"......
So they of course bring the ship into brisbane where it is now leaking fuel oil into the Brisbane river......
I find it f@cking incredulous that nobody has anything to say about what is described as the biggest ecological disaster in the history of SE QLD. Two comments till now from people from inter state. I'm not often serious but apathy truely sucks !!!.......oooo my mast is stuck .......@#$%&*
Its ****ing incredible.
What i'd like to know is who authorised the boat to pull into the harbour and not quarantine the immediate areas with booms.
Pure fkn genius.
Also why the delay in clean up?
There are lots and lots of questions that need to be answered.
a mate went windsurfing in the stuff at the caloundra bar.
said he was sailing along, hit the slick and the board went all skatey. said it was wierd feeling.
I have been trying to volunteer to help with wildlife etc for the past 2 days, there appears to be no coordinated response at all. What has happened to the emergency plan that all ports must maintain on standby at all times ???
Hey Richie, check out this thread. It just shows how much us kiters care about the environment, compared to the selfcentered poleys. 
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=48751
Loose containers ????
I don't think so.
Locked and lashed!!!
As a sailboarder you should understand the power of the wind and especially the waves......
And this is the reason that im so opposed to nuclear power......
"Trust the Government and big business to keep us safe" .... not for me!!!
If the oils was radio active .... imagine the problem then?
Frankly Richiefish..
I am lost for words...this is a disaster (to me) as bad..at the bush fires and the floods.
If I could physically help (as I am in WA) I would be down doing my 2cents worth..
I find this disaster...massive..because it is in the water...and to get a handle on the magnitude of what this stuff is going to kill and affect for years to come I can't comprehend (at least I am honest)
My lack of words in this post..may reflect what others feel too!..or maybe not!
if you think thats f**king incredible, a week ago the epa started to inforce their new green zones in moreton bay and moreton island to help with depleating fish stocks, now their green zones are black zones so much for protecting our fish stocks,how long now will it take for these areas to recover? and why the delay, because the idiots couldnt deceide which department was going to supply the man power and wear the costs,
time to put someone else in charge, anybody could do a better job, anybody could do better than these pack of twits
RichieRich .... I am under the impression you don't actually know what you are talking about -- on this point.
I do actually work in the industry. Containers are locked with "rated" twistlocks to each other and the deck of the ship and then lashed with turnbuckles and rigid rods to the deck. DEFINITELY not loose as you stated.
I HAVE seen vessels arrive in port with mangled and twisted containers (also gaps where they have been smashed overboard) by heavy seas in the Bight.A winter storm -- not a cyclone. So yes they do go overboard, albeit not nearly as many times as I stuff up a gybe and you imply.
I understand the upset an event like this causes and I too am pi__ed off about it but uninformed comments like yours do not help the situation. You obviously live in Queensland and probably enjoy the benefits of a lifestyle built on an economy sustained by exports of mined products and imported boards and sails and X-Boxes. Do they arrive with Santa? - I don't think so. My kids think they do. They actually come by ship. Ships are actually quite necessary I think and a lot less polluting (usually) than trucks and planes.
This tragedy may well be caused by human error and lack of judgment but please stick to facts 'cos an Australian shipping industry is better than a foreign "flag of convenience" shipping industry, which is better than trucks on the road etc etc etc.
The whole system of pollution control seems to have had a meltdown because to have the incident happen in the first place is most likely bad fortune or maybe stupidity but to then pollute the Brissie River has got to be an absolute clusterf_ck of monumental proportions.
It's probably a good time to pressure the government to beef up the pollution response methods while the election is happening and try and protect what is one of Ozzes great coastline regions.
Off my soapbox now.
Good luck.....
The media seem to be overlooking the magnitude of this. The big news is those relief concerts & someones dug up some nude photos of pauline hanson
The only response I've seen from the QLD gov is how long they think it'll take to clean it up & where's krudd during this.......
I have heard in the press that the Captain is inexperienced and made some bad decisions and faces charges (GOOD) - bleeding obvious that snippet of info. Schedules can be made up so I wouldn't think that was the reason he chose to carry on rather than point into weather.
Most likely just not enough experience to help make the right decisions and look what happens - a disaster which has ruined the coastline and it's probably only luck that there were no humans lost.
Like a lot of things in life I would think that he wishes he had made a couple of different choices.
Good luck with the clean up.........
mmm I'm worried about pressure from companies on captains to meet ETAs. Especially inexperienced guys worried about their job. Similar to truck drivers but with a much higher potential for disaster. Imagine a ship of this size breaking up on the Great Barrier Reef......The blame game allways seems to happen AFTER the event...when its too late....
