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The ''Cosco Busan'' oil spill occurred at 08:30 UTC-8 on 7 November 2007 between San Francisco and
Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
, in which of IFO-380 heavy fuel oil, sometimes referred to as " bunker fuel", spilled into
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
after the
container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...
''Cosco Busan'', operated by Fleet Management Limited struck Delta Tower of the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, commonly referred to as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco an ...
in thick fog. Investigators found that
maritime pilot A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who has specific knowledge of an often dangerous or congested waterway, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots know local details s ...
John Cota was impaired because of his use of prescription
pharmaceuticals Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...
while piloting the container vessel, which rendered him unable to use the onboard radar and electronic navigation charts correctly. This occurred despite the fact that the
Vessel Traffic Service A vessel traffic service is a marine traffic monitoring system established by harbour or port authorities, similar to air traffic control for aircraft. The International Maritime Organization defines vessel traffic service as "a service implemente ...
of the
United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...
warned Cota that the vessel was headed for the bridge. Cota was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison for his role in the incident. California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...
declared a state of emergency after meeting federal, state and local officials overseeing the cleanup. The proclamation made additional state personnel, funding and equipment available to assess and clean up the
environmental damage Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
.


Causes

The
National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...
determined the following probable causes of the accident: # the pilot's degraded cognitive performance from his use of impairing prescription medications # the absence of a comprehensive pre-departure master/pilot exchange and a lack of effective communication between Pilot John Cota and Master, Captain Mao Cai Sun during the accident voyage, and # Captain Sun's ineffective oversight of Cota's piloting performance and the vessel's progress. Other contributing factors included: # the failure of Fleet Management Ltd. to train ''Cosco Busan'' crewmembers, including a failure to ensure that the crew understood and complied with the company's safety management system; # the U.S. Coast Guard's failure to provide adequate medical oversight of Cota, in view of the medical and medication information he had reported to the Coast Guard.
Master Mao Cai Sun meekly abdicated control of his ship to a pilot who was affected by pharmaceuticals. First Mate Kongxiang Hu left his post as lookout to eat breakfast. Second Mate Shun Biao Zhao failed to plan the ship's course out of the bay and then forged his colleagues' signatures on a plan drafted after the accident. And Third Mate Hong Zhi Wang failed to monitor the ship’s path using GPS. :— '' East Bay Express'', 27 May 2009
In addition, investigations conducted by independent experts from the international maritime community also highlighted the potential effects of insufficient human-machine interface design, contributing to such accidents even though "
human error Human error is an action that has been done but that was "not intended by the actor; not desired by a set of rules or an external observer; or that led the task or system outside its acceptable limits".Senders, J.W. and Moray, N.P. (1991) Human Er ...
" is often directly used as the main cause without further investigating shortcomings in the HMI. This is, even though HMI has been accepted as a significant factor in aviation accidents for many decades:


Responsibility

Senator
Barbara Boxer Barbara Sue Boxer (née Levy; born November 11, 1940) is a retired American politician, lobbyist, and former reporter who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United St ...
and San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...
criticized the Coast Guard for its response, as its initial reported figures, between of oil, were significantly lower than those of the actual spill. On Friday 30 November 2007, the United States government filed a lawsuit against the ship and the pilot. On 23 July 2008, a federal grand jury indicted Fleet Management Ltd. of Hong Kong, the company that operated ''Cosco Busan''. The indictment included six felonies for allegedly falsifying documents to interfere with a federal investigation and two misdemeanor counts of criminal negligence for allegedly helping to cause the spill. The company offered to plead guilty to the misdemeanors. This federal criminal case was resolved when Fleet paid $10 million in fines and restitution. $8 million went to a victim/witness fund and $2 million went to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to be used for environmental projects in the Bay Area. On 23 October 2008, the California state Board of Pilot Commissioners released a report, saying the spill was the result of a series of mistakes by the
maritime pilot A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who has specific knowledge of an often dangerous or congested waterway, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots know local details s ...
Captain John Cota. The 18-page report found Cota had made seven serious errors in piloting the ship, including failing to correctly read an electronic chart on the ship, sailing in fog so thick that he could see only 200 feet ahead and sailing at an unsafe speed. Cota faced seven federal charges for spilling oil and killing federally protected birds. On 6 March 2009, Cota negotiated a plea agreement with prosecutors to federal water pollution and migratory bird killing charges. The agreement called for him to serve two to ten months in prison and included a fine between $3,000 and $30,000. On 10 July, he was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment. On 19 September 2011, federal, state, and local agencies announced a final comprehensive civil settlement for $44.4 million. It included the following: * $32.2 million for natural resource damages (to be spent on restoration projects) * $1.25 million for state penalties. * $10.9 million for unpaid government response and assessment costs


Bay Area impact

The tidal mechanics of San Francisco Bay caused the spill to spread rapidly, affecting a large area of the California North Coast, including the
Golden Gate National Recreation Area The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the Unite ...
, Ocean Beach and the Marin Headlands. More than 50 public beaches were closed, including Crissy Field, Fort Point, Baker Beach, China Beach and Kirby Cove. By 14 November 2007, beaches as far south as
Pacifica, California Pacifica (, meaning "Peaceful") is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco and Half Moon Bay, California, Half Moon Bay. Overview The City of Pacifica is spread along a stretch of sandy c ...
, had been closed due to the spill. Richmond's shoreline and wildlife were seriously affected by the spill. Beaches and shorelines were closed, but later reopened. However, access was still restricted as of December 2007.Oil Spill Information
, City of Richmond website, retrieved 18 December 2007
The government organizations responsible for the cleanup response and recovery devoted much effort to the East Bay and Rodeo Beach since they were the areas most impacted. The Rodeo Beach and Albany Beach segments were the last ones to be signed off as cleaned because of the additional maintenance and monitoring that were required.


Environmental

According to the federal and state natural resource trustee agencies, the spill is estimated to have killed 6,849 birds. 2,519 were collected: 1,084 were collected alive (789 of which died; 295 of which were rehabilitated and released) and 1,856 were collected dead. About of coastline, incorporating 3,367 acres, was oiled. The eggs laid by
herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...
, which typically enter the bay in December, were killed in areas affected by the spill. It is estimated that 14 to 29% of the herring spawn in winter 2007-8 were lost due to the spill.


Economic

Several fisheries in the Bay Area may have been affected by the spill and the crab and sport fishing seasons were postponed by several weeks. As of 30 November, State biologists had tested more than 1100 samples of fish, mussels and Dungeness crab in San Francisco Bay and coastal waters outside the Golden Gate. The tests found unsafe levels of contaminants in mussels from Rodeo Beach and the Berkeley pier. An estimated 1,079,900 recreational use days were also lost as a result of the spill. This includes general shoreline use as well as recreational fishing and boating. Total monetary damages were estimated at $2.1 million for the ship, $1.5 million for the bridge's fender, and more than $70 million for oil spill cleanup.


Volunteering

Initial official releases from public agencies warned against involvement of volunteers, and worked to deflect volunteers into non-contact activities. This included asking people to act as drivers for bird transport, or as support staff to other efforts. The U.S. Coast Guard directed volunteers to clean non-oiled beaches. For the first few days OSHA rules were interpreted as requiring HAZWOPER certification, a minimum of 24 hours of classroom time, before involvement in any effort that may result in oil contact. Eventually, and after significant pressure from would-be volunteers, a four-hour "Disaster Service Worker Volunteer Certification" subset of the course was offered. OSHA rules require exactly 240 minutes of classroom time, and the certification is valid for only one incident, e.g., this oil spill.


Cleanup timeline

Ad-hoc volunteers were discouraged from cleaning beaches during the early days following the spill, as government workers and private contractor The O'Brien's Group handled the official disaster response. On 11 November 2007, cleanup and reports were focused on damage assessment of ''Cosco Busan''. Oil-soaked birds were put in boxes and driven to the San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center in Fairfield to be rehabilitated by
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
, veterinary medical students, and as of 25 November, some birds were returned to the wild.


Aftermath

On 21 December 2007, the ''Cosco Busan'', having been renamed the '' Hanjin Venezia'', sailed out of San Francisco Bay en route to
Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
, with a new crew working her decks. US$1.5 million in repairs were completed to the bridge fender, three weeks ahead of schedule and $500,000 under budget around the same time. File:Richmond marina bay shore closure - oil spill.jpg, A Contra Costa county sign in Richmond Marina Bay warns of shoreline closure due to oil contamination. File:Cosco Busan 2007-12-20.jpg, M/V ''Cosco Busan'' departing San Francisco under its new name, MSC ''Hanjin Venezia'', approaching the Golden Gate Bridge. Repairs visible on her port side.


See also

*
1971 San Francisco Bay oil spill The 1971 San Francisco Bay oil spill occurred when two Standard Oil Company of California tankers, the ''Arizona Standard'' and the ''Oregon Standard'', collided on January 18, 1971, in the San Francisco Bay. The resulting 800,000-gallon spill, th ...
* List of oil spills * SS ''Cape Mohican'' oil spill


References


External links


Path of ''Cosco Busan''

Cosco Busan Natural Resource Damage Assessment

Fleet Management Limited official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cosco Busan Oil Spill 2007 disasters in the United States 2007 in California 2007 in the environment 2007 industrial disasters Disasters in California Environment of the San Francisco Bay Area Environmental issues in California History of the San Francisco Bay Area Maritime accidents involving fog Maritime incidents in 2007 Maritime incidents in the United States Oil spills in the United States Petroleum in California November 2007 in the United States