2000 Idle Seamen Filling Ocean With Junk

[mrmoshe]

2000 idle seamen filling ocean with junk

SURFERS along a 120-kilometre stretch of coastline between Newcastle and Sydney's northern beaches have noticed little sachets of soy sauce coming in on the tide.

Other rubbish, such as food wrappers, discarded maritime odds and sods, magazines and other items bored crewmen might absent-mindedly drop overboard appeared about the time that the fleet that was going nowhere began growing alarmingly along the horizon.

Yesterday, idle as painted ships upon a painted ocean, 66 colliers lay at anchor in a sort of Pacific car park.

A further 12 vessels were in the Port of Newcastle belatedly being filled to their Plimsoll lines.

Ships have been queuing for up to 32 days on average to get into Newcastle's coal loaders and, with between 20 and 30 crew aboard each vessel, up to 2000 men have been stuck offshore for weeks of maintenance and ennui.

The coal loader base in Newcastle Harbour - the world's biggest - has been racing to catch up with demand since foul weather and floods in the Hunter Valley last month forced the cancellation of the coal chain when tracks were washed away near Singleton. It lay dormant for a week and took a further seven days to get back to normal.

But if the coal chain stopped, the ships did not. They kept arriving and at the peak last week, more than 80 were waiting offshore.

The chairman of Surf Rider Foundation Australia, Chris Goal, said yesterday it was feared the fleet was causing far more pollution than most people realised.

"While we'd like to believe the ship and their crews comply with the various regulations and the requirements but we wonder about compliance," Mr Goal said.

"Many of the ships fly flags of convenience and it's understandable that crews being forced to hang around for weeks waiting in a queue to get into Newcastle will drop stuff overboard - we've been getting word from surfers all along the coast that stuff is coming in off the boats.

"Then there is the question of ballast. The ships are pumping out ballast in order to get into port faster and get loaded and there's no knowing what's in the water that has been sitting in the bottom of the vessels."

The fate of the fleet came into stark relief when the Pasha Bulker ignored the urging of authorities to anchor further offshore in the face of approaching wild weather and was swept on to Nobbys Beach to become Newcastle's biggest but briefest tourist attraction.

The stranding brought out the Novocastrian fishing fraternity, which wrote to the Minister for Ports, Joe Tripodi, to express its fears that the fleet of idle colliers was anchoring too close to land and damaging not only reefs but possibly historic ship wrecks.

But there appears to be no quick solution to the offshore fleet. The general manager of Port Waratah Coal Services, Graham Davidson, said: "The queue is not expected to reduce to below 30 vessels until the end of September."

Fleet to nowhere … cargo ships line up off the coast from Newcastle up to 12 kilometres out to sea and stretching south past Gosford. Recent bad weather has made the situation worse.

[mrelxr6]

ah well..someone is getting cream overtime..lol

[jewgaffer]

2000 idle seamen filling ocean with junk

SURFERS along a 120-kilometre stretch of coastline between Newcastle and Sydney's northern beaches have noticed little sachets of soy sauce coming in on the tide.

Other rubbish, such as food wrappers, discarded maritime odds and sods, magazines and other items bored crewmen might absent-mindedly drop overboard appeared about the time that the fleet that was going nowhere began growing alarmingly along the horizon.

Yesterday, idle as painted ships upon a painted ocean, 66 colliers lay at anchor in a sort of Pacific car park.

A further 12 vessels were in the Port of Newcastle belatedly being filled to their Plimsoll lines.

Ships have been queuing for up to 32 days on average to get into Newcastle's coal loaders and, with between 20 and 30 crew aboard each vessel, up to 2000 men have been stuck offshore for weeks of maintenance and ennui.

The coal loader base in Newcastle Harbour - the world's biggest - has been racing to catch up with demand since foul weather and floods in the Hunter Valley last month forced the cancellation of the coal chain when tracks were washed away near Singleton. It lay dormant for a week and took a further seven days to get back to normal.

But if the coal chain stopped, the ships did not. They kept arriving and at the peak last week, more than 80 were waiting offshore.

The chairman of Surf Rider Foundation Australia, Chris Goal, said yesterday it was feared the fleet was causing far more pollution than most people realised.

"While we'd like to believe the ship and their crews comply with the various regulations and the requirements but we wonder about compliance," Mr Goal said.

"Many of the ships fly flags of convenience and it's understandable that crews being forced to hang around for weeks waiting in a queue to get into Newcastle will drop stuff overboard - we've been getting word from surfers all along the coast that stuff is coming in off the boats.

"Then there is the question of ballast. The ships are pumping out ballast in order to get into port faster and get loaded and there's no knowing what's in the water that has been sitting in the bottom of the vessels."

The fate of the fleet came into stark relief when the Pasha Bulker ignored the urging of authorities to anchor further offshore in the face of approaching wild weather and was swept on to Nobbys Beach to become Newcastle's biggest but briefest tourist attraction.

The stranding brought out the Novocastrian fishing fraternity, which wrote to the Minister for Ports, Joe Tripodi, to express its fears that the fleet of idle colliers was anchoring too close to land and damaging not only reefs but possibly historic ship wrecks.

But there appears to be no quick solution to the offshore fleet. The general manager of Port Waratah Coal Services, Graham Davidson, said: "The queue is not expected to reduce to below 30 vessels until the end of September."

Fleet to nowhere … cargo ships line up off the coast from Newcastle up to 12 kilometres out to sea and stretching south past Gosford. Recent bad weather has made the situation worse.

i'll bet they'll get the message in soy bottles

regards pete hard work well done

jewgaffer

dine on me minus the bottle

i'll bet they'll either tripover tripover or get the message in soy bottles

regards pete hard work well done

jewgaffer

dine on me minus the soy bottle

[jewgaffer]

i'll bet they'll either tripover tripover or get the message in soy bottles

regards pete hard work well done

jewgaffer

dine on me minus the soy bottle

QUOTE "While we'd like to believe the ship and their crews comply* with the various regulations and the requirements but we wonder about compliance*," Mr Goal said. (gaol?) (emphasis in red added)*

that statement from mr. goal does make a lot of sense deserves a promotion for every other soy drunk aboard

jewgaffer

fish on and vote informal

Edited July 13, 2007 by jewgaffer

[james1990]

I enjoyed reading that,,,,thanks pete.

cheers james

[Penguin]

Very interesting story,something I never gave much thought to.

penguin