Amakusa Island grounding provides Enbridge opponents with a visual aid

Photo of Amakusa Island courtesy of 
Transportation Safety Board of Canada Twitter feed

As word of the grounding of the Amakusa Island began to spread beyond Prince Rupert by

Wednesday, those who have long offered up their concerns on the theme of oil shipments along the North Coast found much to review from the incident in Prince Rupert harbour.

For those opposed to the Northern Gateway proposal, the focus of the grounding of the coal ship has shifted,  offering a visual aid for the what if scenarios.

The picture of the listing Amakusa Island providing opponents with an opportunity to once again warn of their concerns over the prospect of bitumen or refined oil shipments from any proposed terminals on the North Coast to World markets.

The theme of environmental  concern was the subject of items from a number of media outlets yesterday, with the Vancouver Sun leading the way with a focus article featuring comments from a range of opponents to the Enbridge proposal.

CFNR provided a short piece on the incident as well, highlighting the concerns of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation which used the Monday incident as a cautionary note.

As we outlined on the blog on Tuesday, the incident took place in the late evening hours of Monday, the vessel was re-floated at high tide in the early hours of Tuesday, after which  it then proceeded to anchorage.

Port officials continue to monitor the situation at the anchorage position.

A full marine inspection of the vessel will determine the extent of the damage and what repairs will be required to the vessel before the Amakusa Island is to set sail agin.

Officials from the Transportation Safety Board have arrived in Prince Rupert and continue on with their investigating the incident. They have posted a number of photos to their twitter feed highlighting the current status of the vessel and offering a view of the extent of the list that the Amakusa Island is suffering from.

Monday evening's incident calls to mind a similar situation from November of 2012 when the Hanjin Geneva became grounded upon approach to Prince Rupert Harbour in somewhat the same location as the Amakusa Island grounding.

Though in that incident there did not appear to be any visible damage to the container vessel, which also was re-floated at the high tide.