UPDATE - Robson Bight salvage a success

Our colleagues from Orcalab are happy to report that the Robson Bight salvage operation has been a success! The tanker truck laden with toxic diesel fuel has been lifted from Robson Bight and safely deposited on the attendant operations barge. Everything went well, both crew and officials were reportedly very pleased with the progress that had been made.

At the time of the operation, a group of transient orcas were seen heading west in Johnstone Strait, passing just outside the salvage scene. They turned out to be the T18s, the same group of orcas that had been sighted nearby on August 20th 2007, the exact date of the barge accident in Robson Bight.

The Marine Connection were delighted to learn from our colleagues Paul and Helena Spong who conduct research on the orcas frequenting the area around Vancouver Island, that at last the Robson Bight clean up has commenced.

Nearly two years ago a barge travelling in the Robson Bight area dropped its load, spilling not only diesel fuel but also dropping logging equipment, a pickup truck, bulldozer, an ambulance, a bus and the fuel tanker truck with its capacity of 10,000 litres of diesel.

Everything sank to the ocean floor, causing great concern for the possible impact this would have on the orca population and their habitat. However after this long delay, salvage equipment is now at last anchored over the site in an attempt to remove the still intact truck.

Local First Nations and NGOs will be involved in helping to monitor the sensitive environment surrounding the Ecological Reserve, created in 1982 to protect the orca's vital habitat. Giant anchors have already been deployed to keep the barge in place and a small remotely operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with cameras is busy inspecting the underwater site to ensure that the truck and other debris are located exactly where they were when last seen in December 2007. Hopefully the inspection will also help determine the condition of the diesel tank which, it is hoped, has not deteriorated to the point where it will break apart when moved.

To help avoid the possibility of a spill of diesel oil during the lifting part of the operation, a metal box will first be lowered over the tanker truck, which will then be secured inside the box. A huge crane on the barge will lift the box and its deadly cargo to the surface. When the load reaches 10m below the surface, divers will enter the water to inspect the box and tanker to determine whether any diesel has leaked during the lift. If there are no leaks, the box and tanker will be hoisted onto the deck of the barge. At that point the diesel will be pumped out of the fuel tanker into another storage tank and everyone involved will breathe a collective sigh of relief. To guard against the possibility of an inadvertent spill of oil, booms will be deployed around the site.

We will continue to post updates on the salvage operation at it progresses and would like to thank Paul & Helena at Orcalab for the updates.