Sick About Slick

Every surfer understands a simple fact: never underestimate the power of the ocean. Once again, this adage proved true as another giant winter swell tore apart the Seli-1 wreck, which lies off the backline at a beach in Tableview near Cape Town.

The result? A kilometre-long oil slick that has put Koeberg on high alert, and black surf breaking for several kilometres along the coast between Tableview and Blouberg. Special oil prevention booms have been put in place around the entrance to the Milnerton Lagoon, and cleanup operations continue.

You see it on TV all the time, dying birds soaking in black goo being pulled out of the water by concerned environmentalists. It isn’t until something like this happens in your back yard that the reality sinks in of just how fragile the system is, and how vunerable to the black blood this planet is so addicted too.

My first encounter with crude oil was surfing in France. One bodyboard deck destroyed and a wetsuit that eventually landed up in the rubbish heap. The thing there is that it was small amounts of crude oil, blobs bobbing about in the water, hardly noticable during my session, but enough to kill my kit.

What I encountered on Tableview beachfront - by no means on the same level as the catastrophe that hit the Gulf of Mexico - but enough to sicken me to my stomach.

The wreck started to break up on Friday. Wavescape’s Facebook page ran a link to a photo provided by Sunset Surf Shop of the wreck splitting in two. The storm didn’t abate and eventually by Saturday morning it was ripped into three. The first thing to hit me as I set foot on the beach was the smell, a nasty chemical smell that seemed to settle on your tongue, leaving a nauseating oil slick on the inside of your mouth.

From the car park the initial damage didn’t look that bad, but it wasn’t until I passed over a dune that I saw the horror show. As far as the eye could see, the high tide line was a black smudge, like the beach had been burnt by a run away veld fire. In the distance the Cape Zone Oil Spill Plan, co-ordinated by the Department of Environmental Affairs was in full swing. Clean up operations on the beach had begun, Milnerton Lagoon had been blocked off with day-glo booms and Koeberg had been put onto high alert.

By Sunday, the raging seas calmed and the clean up teams were joined by hundreds of local residents who assisted in shovelling oil soaked sand into bags and identifying and reporting any wildlife that had been affected by the oil.

All things considered this spill was minor; most of the oil was removed off the Seli-1 2 years ago. The SA Martime Safety authority recons it was only a small amount that was left on the boat, maybe they underestimated the power of the ocean, maybe the never expected the ocean to rip the Seli-1 in three. What they consider minor was enough to put a nasty smelly spin on my local seals, birds, fish, surfers, Kiters and SUPers weekend.

Maybe next time they will make sure that every last drop of crude oil is removed before leaving a wreck to the wrath of the Cape of Storms.