SAN FRANCISCO (Nov. 10, 2007) -

A gash, approximately 100-feet long container ship that caused the San Francisco Bay oil spill.

A preliminary investigation found human error caused a cargo ship to crash into the Bay Bridge, leading to San Francisco Bay?s worst oil spill in nearly two decades, the U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday as rescue teams raced to save hundreds of seabirds and locals questioned why it took the Coast Guard four hours to report how significant the spill was.
There were skilled enough individuals on board this ship. They didn?t carry out their missions correctly,? said Rear Adm. Craig Bone, the Coast Guard?s top official in California. Coast Guard officials declined to lay blame on any specific individual or provide further detail on the mistakes that were made during the midweek crash.

Investigators were focusing on issues surrounding the ship?s official protocol for safely navigating out of the bay, including possible communication problems between the ship?s crew, the pilot guiding the vessel and the Vessel Traffic Service, the Coast Guard station that monitors the bay?s shipping traffic.
Coast Guard Cmdr. Andrew Wood said ?the mere fact that they collided with a fixed object? offered clear evidence that a communication problem had occurred. But a language barrier between the vessel?s pilot, Capt. John Cota, and the ship?s all-Chinese crew was not likely a factor in the crash, since ship?s captain and officers are required to speak English, officials said. Cota, who is American, is among a group of specially trained pilots who are not members of a ship?s crew but typically come on board to maneuver large cargo vessels in San Francisco Bay. The Cosco Busan was headed out of the bay when it sideswiped a support on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Wednesday morning, leaving a gash nearly 100 feet long on the side of the 900-foot vessel. The crash ruptured two fuel tanks, which leaked about 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel into the bay. Warning reportedly issued
Bone declined to comment on a report that the Coast Guard had warned the pilot about the ship?s course shortly before the crash. John Meadows, the lawyer for the ship?s pilot, told The San Francisco Chronicle that the nearby Coast Guard facility radioed Cota and questioned his bearings. The pilot immediately responded by saying the ship?s instruments showed he was on the correct heading, Meadows told the newspaper. Bone acknowledged that there were communications between the ship and the Coast Guard?s traffic facility before the collision. He said the communications involved the ship?s course and speed but declined to comment further on the nature of the exchange.
Bay Area residents and California lawmakers are also angry over what they say was a slow Coast Guard response to a massive fuel oil leak from a damaged ship on Wednesday.
At issue was the Coast Guard?s four-hour delay in notifying the public of the spill?s magnitude ? 58,000 gallons, not the 140 gallons the agency originally reported, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.
Something went terribly wrong, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., told the newspaper. It was not handled the way it has to be handled. review of the Coast Guard log for the incident revealed that investigators learned the spill?s real size at 4:49 p.m. but failed to update its original estimate until 8:58 p.m., the Chronicle reported. The spill of heavy bunker fuel oil came from the Cosco Busan after it struck part of the Bay Bridge at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday. The ship remained moored and its crew sequestered, the newspaper reported. Bone called the delay ?unacceptable? and said it was being investigated.
?Responsible parties will be held accountable,? he said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is scheduled to tour the disaster site Monday, told the newspaper: ?It may also be necessary to conduct an independent investigation.

Crab season delayed commercial Dungeness crab fishermen were set to begin their season next week but voted Saturday to delay that and asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to close the waters outside the Golden Gate to crabbing by sport fishermen as well until the waters are deemed safe. The crabbers said the oil spill does not harm the crustaceans, who dwell deep on the ocean floor. The oil harms crabs when they?re transferred to the live tanks in which are housed after being caught. Collins said crabs brought in by some fisherman on Saturday were dead on arrival.

Source: MSN News