Oh buoy were we warned: ship debris on beach
June 3 2011
SHARP metal sheeting from the ex-HMAS Adelaide washed up along North Avoca Beach on the eve of World Environment Day.
Severe storms in the past week littered the beach with ship debris and broke loose two navigational buoys.
The potentially dangerous debris, with some metal sheets up to 2 metres long, marks the beginning of the predicted break-up of the ex-HMAS Adelaide.
The No Ship Action Group has kept a piece of the debris to make a sculpture.
Many supporters of the scuttling claimed the wreck would be positive for the environment and that this was an environmentally friendly sea dumping.
The sculpture will highlight the irony of dumping an ex-naval vessel into the ocean as an ‘artificial reef’ which now endangers swimmers and marine life.
No Ship Action Group warned the frigate was the wrong type of ship to sink, and that it would break up as has its identical sister ship the ex-HMAS Canberra, sunk off the Victorian coast near Geelong in October, 2009.
The Geelong ship has cracked and is already breaking up with Parks Victoria issuing a warning to divers on its website 16 months after the ship sunk.
It is less two months since the ex-HMAS Adelaide was sunk on April 13 2011 and it is already breaking up.
Divers have reported that the hull has cracked. The crack has appeared in the ship’s ‘weak spot’ as outlined by a marine engineer in a $4000 report NSAG commission in the month before the ex-HMAS was sunk in a last-minute bid to prove to authorities the ship would break up and pollute the bay. Read the report online here. http://bit.ly/fwNZFi
The report was the basis of a summons in the Land and Environment Court the day before the scuttling in what was a last-minute bid to stop the dumping. Read the Summons here http://bit.ly/kJi8EB
However, Premier Barry O’Farrell chose to ignore the report, as did Member for Terrigal Chris Hartcher.
The potentially dangerous metal sections of the ex-HMAS Adelaide made their way to the beach starting on Thursday.
One piece of aluminium sheet measuring two metres by 60cm was found in the surf zone on Thursday afternoon.
About 80 smaller sections measuring on average about 20cm by 20cm were seen strewn along the beach.
The sheet is of sandwich construction with air trapped in a honeycomb of very thin aluminium between two sheets of aluminium. The trapped air gives the sheets enough buoyancy to keep them floating
According to expert marine engineer, Werner Hoyt, “The material washing ashore are internal partitioning aluminum wall materials not removed during preparation for reefing.”
In this form with razor sharp edges it could prove deadly in the surf zone. A surfer or child struck by a thin sharp sheet this size could sustain a very serious injury.
Local surfers want answers. How many of the deadly sheets are still lurking in the surf area from Avoca Beach to North Avoca? This could be a serious hazard to marine life if ingested such as whales, dolphins, turtles and other marine creatures.
“It appears that the Adelaide is becoming the poster child of why ships should no longer be reefed,” Mr Hoyt said. “Cost of reefing is now at four times the raw cost to recycle with out counting the resource recovery. The planners failed to account for differences in construction technologies and their likely behavior when subjected to a reefing environment.”
Once again, two ex-HMAS Adelaide marker buoys broke loose in recent storms This is the second occasion buoys have broken free, this time amidst sea twisters and massive swells.
The ship wreck is just 6 metres below the surface and a serious navigational hazard right now as there are no navigational marker buoys there.
Rumour has it that one buoy washed up at Wamberal and a reward for $600 is being offered to trawler captains if they find one.
The buoy system comprises two navigational marker buoys ($16,000 each) and six mooring buoys.
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