Barrier Reef Left with a Massive Hole!

[fsu1dolfan]

Very sad story and even worse is that it was all caused to to a sleepy captain. Glad to hear he is being held responsible for his actions but a hole in the reef about 1.8 miles long is crazy!

Fatigue To Blame For Great Barrier Reef Grounding - Science News - redOrbit

 

[Viva'sReef]

The Sleepy captain was just the icing on the cake....what about all the other checks that should have been in place?

"One of the concerns is in the ship’s safety management system. It did not contain procedures or guidance for the proper use of passage plans, which should include route plans."

Or

"no visual cues to warn either the chief mate or the seaman on lookout duty about the underwater navigation hazards directly ahead of the ship"

and lastly

“protections afforded by compulsory pilotage and active monitoring of ships by the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel Traffic Service were not in place.â€

It just seems to me that there was massive amounts of neglect on all parts involved, including the GBR traffic service

 

[swannyson7]

:neutral: Fatigue??

 

[fsu1dolfan]

The Sleepy captain was just the icing on the cake....what about all the other checks that should have been in place?

"One of the concerns is in the ship’s safety management system. It did not contain procedures or guidance for the proper use of passage plans, which should include route plans."

Or

"no visual cues to warn either the chief mate or the seaman on lookout duty about the underwater navigation hazards directly ahead of the ship"

and lastly

“protections afforded by compulsory pilotage and active monitoring of ships by the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel Traffic Service were not in place.”

It just seems to me that there was massive amounts of neglect on all parts involved, including the GBR traffic service

Absolutely agree - tons of neglegence! Sad thing is no money or jail time will fix the hole :sad:

 

[btkrausen]

This kinda sounds like the same thing the Navy "wants" to do in Guam, is to demolish a huge part of the reef to park its new ship there. Its crazy and it seems like they could figure out another place to put it without destroying the environment.

 

[TyreeUM]

1.5 miles seems like a drop in the bucket to what our hobby has caused to the reefs in the pacific though...just a thought

 

[colorfan45]

I agree Tyreeum

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Instead of sitting in jail or getting fined that guy should have to sit on a bouey and wave other ships away from hitting the reef. Now that would be some good karma.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

1.5 miles seems like a drop in the bucket to what our hobby has caused to the reefs in the pacific though...just a thought

Oh come on...i know the impact but at least we are trying to preserve it in our tanks...plus the nuances of aquaculturing and trying to farm things instead of continuing to grab from the oceans! I would like to think we are trying to progress as a hobby...how can you compare that to trash being dumped into the oceans or ship running over reefs!

 

[Jcr's Reef]

The Sleepy captain was just the icing on the cake....what about all the other checks that should have been in place?

"One of the concerns is in the ship’s safety management system. It did not contain procedures or guidance for the proper use of passage plans, which should include route plans."

Or

"no visual cues to warn either the chief mate or the seaman on lookout duty about the underwater navigation hazards directly ahead of the ship"

and lastly

“protections afforded by compulsory pilotage and active monitoring of ships by the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel Traffic Service were not in place.â€

It just seems to me that there was massive amounts of neglect on all parts involved, including the GBR traffic service

Very true. I'm sure if they would have inspected the ship they would have found more red flags on lack of maintenance or other orders to fix the ship(s) that have not been taken care of yet.

1.5 miles seems like a drop in the bucket to what our hobby has caused to the reefs in the pacific though...just a thought

The amount that comes in from wholesalers alone (and there are alot of them out there) is mind boggling and quiet disturbing, and its all done for profit and entertainment that has no benefits to the reef itself. Granted, all frags at one point have come from "wild" coral, but thats the main reason I try to by frags from other hobbyist.

 

[BlazinNano]

Oh come on...i know the impact but at least we are trying to preserve it in our tanks...plus the nuances of aquaculturing and trying to farm things instead of continuing to grab from the oceans! I would like to think we are trying to progress as a hobby...how can you compare that to trash being dumped into the oceans or ship running over reefs!

Very good point. even if you are the kind of person who only buys aquacultured corals. They came from the ocean at some point. If you look at for sale threads there are more aquacultured corals being sold then anything. Vendors get them in, color them up, sell frags of them, the buyer grows it out, cuts it and sells a frag of it. This goes on and on. I truly feel that what we do will in the long run be something great. You have to think if everyone in this hobby all over the world just gave 1 small frag of something in their tank we could make a huge reef.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

Very good point. even if you are the kind of person who only buys aquacultured corals. They came from the ocean at some point. If you look at for sale threads there are more aquacultured corals being sold then anything. Vendors get them in, color them up, sell frags of them, the buyer grows it out, cuts it and sells a frag of it. This goes on and on. I truly feel that what we do will in the long run be something great. You have to think if everyone in this hobby all over the world just gave 1 small frag of something in their tank we could make a huge reef.

Wow i could only imagine the diversified reef all of us could create...Hope we never have to get to that point!

 

[marreef]

hey guys this actually happened over a year ago if im not mistaken

 

[fsu1dolfan]

hey guys this actually happened over a year ago if im not mistaken

This is correct but information regarding the investigation is finally being released and some people might go to jail!

 

[TyreeUM]

don't kid yourself though, although there are a lot of aquaculture coral, the fact is this hobby has grown 100 fold in the last 10 years, increasing the demand for wild collected coral and fish along with it. And I compare it to a ship running into the reef based on the fact that we have taken hundreds of thousands of pounds of rock out of the ocean, destroying the reef to aquascape our tanks. Most of the early live rock came from locals drilling holes and blowing the reef to smithereens with dynamite. Face it man, our hobby has done some pretty extensive damage and we are by no means in any position to be giving ourselves a pat on the back for the small steps we have made in preserving those reefs. I love this hobby and as long as I am legally allowed to keep/grow/trade my corals, I will be doing so for sure. With those reefs being on the complete opposite side of the world, it is easy for us to forget about the stuff that goes on over there because we have created a demand for it. I don't sit and look at tanks and think about what a horrible person I am, but I try to be as responsible as I can when purchasing the things I put into my tank. Anyhow - not to ruin your day or whatever, but it sure is something to think about....

 

[btkrausen]

don't kid yourself though, although there are a lot of aquaculture coral, the fact is this hobby has grown 100 fold in the last 10 years, increasing the demand for wild collected coral and fish along with it. And I compare it to a ship running into the reef based on the fact that we have taken hundreds of thousands of pounds of rock out of the ocean, destroying the reef to aquascape our tanks. Most of the early live rock came from locals drilling holes and blowing the reef to smithereens with dynamite. Face it man, our hobby has done some pretty extensive damage and we are by no means in any position to be giving ourselves a pat on the back for the small steps we have made in preserving those reefs. I love this hobby and as long as I am legally allowed to keep/grow/trade my corals, I will be doing so for sure. With those reefs being on the complete opposite side of the world, it is easy for us to forget about the stuff that goes on over there because we have created a demand for it. I don't sit and look at tanks and think about what a horrible person I am, but I try to be as responsible as I can when purchasing the things I put into my tank. Anyhow - not to ruin your day or whatever, but it sure is something to think about....

I have to agree. I think about the natural reefs every time I see vendors post pics up of new shipments they get in. Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff as much as everybody else, but it is something I think about often.

 

[nixer]

i dont agree at all. responsible collecting it much greater than it was. how about the large numbers of fish that are now collected at the larval stage when most would die in the first place. how about all those captive bred fish and coral farming efforts.
did you factor in all that free radiation that japan is spreading around?


oh yea on the OP i would say that i would require that all parties do work on the reef to clean and repair the damages!

 

[greg0385]

i think were doing better about taking care of the reefs, with groups finding corals that are overcrowed on the reef and frag those out in metal tables in the ocean and once they have growed out into colonies they place them in back in dead areas in the reef to grow out and start to a new reef. pretty neat to watch that on a tv show. i do believe we can always do better about perserving the natural reef that inspired us all to have a little chunk in our homes.

 

[TyreeUM]

No doubt we are doing better (thankfully), but the biggest challenge we have now is trying to figure out a management plan for sustainable collection, which as it sits right now, seems like an impossible feat. I am a fisheries biologist and am completing my masters as we speak, and it is really interesting, thumbing through journals for school, catching an article that deals with the aquarium trade and the state of the reefs. There has been hardly any research done into collection pressure, which is really scary. Take Bengaii cardinals for example. Someone, fairly recently, did a study on fishing pressure for the aquarium trade. Even though these fish are all net collected, the article showed that, in the majority of the collection sites monitored, the fish were being taken at a level that was not sustainable. I am not trying to start an argument on this thread by any means, I just feel obligated to share what I know as it is easy for the average person to get excited when they hear phrases like "net collected", etc. There are a lot of people that are focusing their efforts on enhancement of the reefs, which is absolutely fantastic, but there is just so much more to a healthy reef than "replanting" coral in areas that are suffering. A suffering reef with newly replaced coral can end up being nothing more than a bandaid fix if there is no longer natural recruitment to the site. My biggest hope for this hobby is that it spurs some younger guys to head into school with these concerns, get their degree, and head off for a masters or phd and get some of this much needed research done. You can choose to believe me or not, but we are heading down a potentially dangerous path, removing only select fish and inverts that we have deemed "desirable", with no scientific data to guide us in knowing a responsible level of collection.

 

[Bubbles_B]

dumb man...just dumb