The National Anarchist response to the Cosco Busan Oil spill

The cargo ship Cosco Busan spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into San Francisco Bay after hitting the Bay Bridge on Nov. 7. What is known so far:

6 a.m.: San Francisco Bay Bar Pilot Capt. John Cota boards the Cosco Busan, a 902-foot Chinese-owned ship headed for South Korea, at Berth 55 of the Oakland Inner Harbor.

7:30 a.m.: After delaying departure 90 minutes due to heavy fog, Cota guides the ship at 11 knots (about 12 miles an hour) toward the Bay Bridge, accompanied by a tugboat escort.

8:20 a.m.: The vessel’s radar fails, Cota later tells investigators. He uses electronic charts, asking the ship’s captain, Mao Cai Sun, to identify the center of the bridge from them.

8:20 a.m.: Moments later, Coast Guard radar operators on Yerba Buena Island advise Cota the ship is off course and moving parallel to the bridge. The ship suddenly turns right.

8:27 a.m.: The ship strikes the Delta tower of the bridge with a glancing blow, ripping a 100-foot-long gash in its hull and two fuel tanks

The spill is reported to be the largest since 1996.  The government agencies assigned to the clean up task is within the Department of Fish Game, Office of Spill Prevention and Response.  By all accounts by NGO’s the governments response was way too slow and that they were not prepared to have so many volunteers for disaster relief work.  There have been at least several hundred birds that have been been sent to decontamination centers.  We think that this and other senseless destructive “accidents” against the environment is the direct result of nonstop globalization, the long term effects to the local environment are unknown at this time. 

Sadly, the government, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, is largely winning the PR campaign that the government plan response was good enough. We at Bay Area National Anarchists directly participated in clean up efforts at Ocean Beach. We know for a fact that the government agencies were overwhelmed and unprepared to deal with the crisis in the critical 72 hours after the spill. The clean up we participated in required a 4-hour training course and a type of HAZMAT suit in order to go out on the beach and clean up the oil. We blame the senseless destruction and poisoning of our shores on a mismanaged and unsafe laissez faire capitalism. These are our lands and the people who live here have to live with the on going cancer causing effects of this spill. Hold the government accountable for it’s shortcomings in the mismanagement of this disaster.

As National Anarchists, we abhor the destruction of wildlife for commercial profit and support all efforts at conservation and the removal of invasive species. We feel that it’s the fundamental duty of a human being to be a good steward to the environment in every way. Profits before the environment is no excuse. We call for a lengthy prison sentence to be handed to the ships captain or government officials if their response to the disaster is proven to have been criminally negligent in the performance of duty.