There goes the neighbourhood.
The impact that the foundering of the MSC Napoli will have on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site remains to be seen. However, prospects range from ‘fairly bad’ to ‘catastrophic’. Fingers crossed that we just get ‘fairly bad’.
I do hope it causes minimal environmental damage but locals must be fearing the worst. Never mind the oil, even containers can spoil the coast if they are not removed. Cailean and I found a huge gas container, bigger than several fishing boats, on the West Tarbert at the Mull of Galloway. It did not look like any attempt had been made to move it and it was actually wearing a trench for itself in the relatively soft rock.
I’m not so worried about the containers. They are easy to pick up, both from the shore and sea, and do by definition contain their contents by and large. My principle concern is for the fuel of the vessel and I suspect this is where the main effort is going at the moment, to pump out the ships tanks.
Fortunately the weather is on our side, todays brisk NE wind and tomorrows Northerly should help provide both a lee for the salvage effort and choppy seas to disperse the currset spillage.
Still, time will tell….
jg
Good blog, Mark. Douglas, regarding the huge gas container found on the West Tarbert, I read that in October 2005, the cargo vessel Rosita, on charter to Streamline, lost one container and five gas cylinders overboard in the Fair Isle Channel.
Do the dates match?