Fuel tanker runs aground on Cayman Brac’s reef
(CNS): An oil tanker called the Sea Elephant ran aground off the eastern shore of Cayman Brac on Saturday afternoon, damaging both the ship and the reef. Officials said the maritime incident happened while the ship was delivering diesel to the island. On Sunday night, it was reported that there had been no fuel leakage from the double-hull tanker, but it was being monitored closely.
The Cayman Islands Coast Guard, the Maritime Authority of the Cayman Islands and the Department of Environment are all involved in the investigations to determine the extent of damage to both the boat and the reef.
While the tanker has reportedly been freed, it was detained pending interviews with the captain and crew. Officials said that as this is an ongoing investigation, further details will be released when possible.
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Category: Local News, Marine Environment, Science & Nature
This is the second close call and potential spill disaster for the Sister Islands, is the DOE and HMCI prepared to handle a large spill? It would be great to have some reassurance from the CIG experts.
No. None of the islands are prepared to deal with a disasterous spill. There was a class give on the Brac decades ago, and I’m sure there are still elderly sorbent booms stored there somewhere.
There aren’t skimmers, nor miles of sorbent boom, nor training of emergency responders to deal with this problem should it rear its ugly head. Listen, it will happen eventually on one of the islands. It’s amazing that it hasn’t happened already.
That tanker that hit the ironshore in Cayman Brac had well enough fuel onboard to cause a complete ongoing and lengthy disaster of the really unimaginable.
I guess its time to build a proper fuel dock. Also, where was Ray Scott in all of this?
Queue Frank Shilling’s pitch deck community tour on Zeus…
Coincidence? I think not.
11:21, There is a huge difference between a fuel dock and a marina Bobo.
Why not transition to different energy sources? Does the sun not shine in the Brac? Does the wind not blow? Further diesel infrastructure investment is the worst possible decision in 2024+, and also inconsistent with the territory’s stated energy transition objectives.
I guess it’s time to build a proper marina on Cayman Brac.
The truth is that this tanker scraped the ocean shelf area at the Creek District area. Creek District is NOT the eastern area of reef of Cayman Brac.
They, the oil tanker company, will pay off the CI Government for this and that pay off will be the end of that.
Pay what? How is that calculated? How much did Paul Allen pay for dragging Octopus’s anchor? Or the freighter that crashed into and collapsed the Eden Rock dive attraction? Why don’t we all know these figures? Because they are redacted settlements for some unknown reason.
Meanwhile the destruction anticipated for Port Zeus is heralded in as a Brac saviour despite the excavation of the marina basin and the dredging and excavation of a new marina access channel.
Do we want sanctioned environmental destruction on the Premiers doorstep?
I love nature and the environment, but we can’t eat ironshore. Build the dam port.
I was born and raised on the Brac. Got a full ride scholarship from the government. Got my degree and came back, unfortunately couldn’t use it in the Brac. Economic stagnation over decades has decimated opportunities.
I’m now living in Grand doing what I love, but sitting miserable in traffic, and longing to return to the lively Brac I once grew up in. I get it – there has to be balance. But my god, a port for the so called elite won’t cause this mess.
Even if it is staffed by permits, they need to eat. More grocery sales = lower prices, yet all I see is unna posting up about how expensive market place food is.
The quiet is nice, but whenever I return to visit, it feels DEAD. The old farts defending “good ole tranquility” need to wake up from their 1970s dream and see how the Brac has withered away and is now an empty conch shell of what it once was.
Cayman Brac is overdue for some jobs, some types of going forward with the economy there. You have a culture on the Brac that they do not want change. That generation will have to die off before you can ever get new thinking of moving on. People cannot make a living any more from the old subsistence living of the ole timers. It is over. People today want air conditioning, cell phones, cars, etc. It takes a good income to pay for modern conveniences and services. Only the few Government jobs are available on the Brac. Things will change but not any time soon with the people in charge over there on the Brac.
Unless they are 20-something pageant finalists willing to hostess and sling drinks, there will be no jobs for Bracers at Zeus.
I hear you and understand.
Here is the problem both on the Brac and Grand Cayman: Great developments are built which require an improved infrastructure. The developers win and bank their winnings. The people, who gain nothing from the developments have to pay for the infrastructure growth.
Should we ever become enlighted and truly caring of our people, proposed developments will have to include improvements of the infrastructure (roads, sewage, water, power, etc.) in their planning documents. Improvements THEY will pay for. P.S. Why are we still giving concessions to foreign investors, which allows them to unfairly compete with native Caymanian businesses?
Do I have to ask?
To give a concession for development on 7MB is idiotic. They’re definitely needed for the Brac – very little economic incentive to set up shop there.. what, with it being dead and all by all the people who fear any and all types of change.
But this, but that, why this, why that – this is the cause of the stagnation mentioned above.
Besides, why do you pose these questions as if the infrastructure upgrades won’t benefit the people themselves? Further, you do realize when the yacht owners dock and stay in a hotel or airbnb, the locals will benefit through generated tax. They need to buy fuel also, which is taxed. They need to top up their supplies on their boat also, which are taxed.
Stop being scared of change. Anything is better than nothing right now.
Superyacht owners don’t stay in hotels or Airbnbs. They arrive and leave in a floating multimillion dollar facility with all their onboard staff, equipment, provisions and services. You might have them confused with high-end catamaran sailers, who generally don’t ply these waters due to piracy. The single hull sailers are often too cheap to stay anywhere other than their boat, and steal stuff from boating residents. There’s not much in between, and not enough local inter-island consumer traffic to justify this latest Shilling boondoggle. Frank should just move to Greece, or Bahamas.
Superyachts are not going to be the only clientele. There’s residences on site. Everything else applies – you pay tax to land here on a private plane too.
Just another one fighting change with no solution for the dismal economic state.
Literally every 20-35 year old I know is always posting up “i need to get off the brac”
I WONDER WHY! When you dead and gone I guess you wanna take the Brac with you!
9:17, Please inform me about piracy in our waters. As a boater I must be missing something.
More people lower prices in super markets ?, what stupid comment, its more people now than ever been on the Brac and the prices are the highest ever Been, facts are facts
There is no reef in that area. Maybe it hit bottom/a shoal?
The government will drill and question the crew on this ship (and rightly so) while the Premier is ready to assist her government in gutting the National Conservation laws of our homeland. Sick bunch of imbeciles.
How about the pilot that was steering them in? Why is the Captain getting blamed? He wasn’t guiding them in.
very sad to say it was a expat pilot, all capable Caymanian captians/Pilots are too old now to work and it’s no young ones to take their place.
What’s the reef out there called? Make Believe Reef?
If Dart is bringing in Greek sourced diesel for the Cayman Brac Power and Light Company, and not giving them proper directions, maybe they should be held responsible for their vendor’s ecological wake? There is no excuse for this.
Dart doesn’t import fuel in the Brac. Pretty sure it is all done by Rubis. How silly!
What is DART’s energy transition plan to reduce Brac’s dependency on diesel, so that accidents like this, or worse, are avoided? What percentage of that Rubis shipment do you think is specifically earmarked for their customer, Brac Power and Light?
What a stupid comment, why would you post complete lies? You need to get a life. Cayman Brac Power and Light get all their fuel through Rubis (like everyone else in the Brac). Stop talking rubbish
https://maritime-executive.com/article/tanker-runs-aground-on-reef-in-cayman-islands
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