On Monday afternoon, a floating boom surrounded a large two-masted sailing vessel that sank over the weekend at its Alameda dock in the Oakland Estuary.
The Kaisei is a replica of a 151-foot brigantine tall ship and is owned by the Bay Area nonprofit Ocean Voyages Institutes, which uses the ship to draw global attention to the problem of marine debris and plastics in the ocean.
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WATCH HEREThe ship began sinking on Sunday night and a boom around the vessel was deployed by the Oakland and Alameda fire departments to contain any spilled fuel. The U.S. Coast Guard is working on containment with the National Response Corporation, an environmental cleanup company.
In 2009, the crew of the Kaisei, which means "ocean planet" in Japanese, embarked on a month-long expedition to the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, an area the size of Texas.
It is the world's largest patch of floating garbage, compiled by the swirl of global ocean currents. Scientists collected hundreds of samples of marine debris and fish, which were found to contain plastics. Their mission was made into a film called Project Kaisei Expedition.
Alameda resident April Silbar said the boat has been decaying for years.
“It was a beautiful old wood boat. It's just kind of sad that it went through the moss growing on it. It actually had some grass growing up through the decks,” Silbar said.
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The boat carrying an estimated 400 gallons of diesel was already deck-level in water, pulling down the dock. Fire crews immediately started to address fuel released in the water.
“We utilized our fire boat to deploy that boom in that water. That boom sits on top of the water, it floats, and it basically tries to stop that fluid sheen, any fluids, diesel, any sort of debris from floating into the rest of the estuary,” said Kevin Tidwell, a spokesperson for the Alameda Fire Department.
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SIGN UP Logan Musser, a diver contracted by the ship’s owner spent hours in the water in low visibility and navigating large debris and didn’t find any fuel leaks. He said more divers are needed to empty out any fuel before the boat can be moved.
“We can locate all the fuel tanks, extract any fuel there, and we will actually know what level of fuel there and also figure out. Hopefully at that point, we can know if we can pull the boat, if we can locate it and what the game plane is,” he said.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is looking into why the boat sank but said they have not found any current wildlife impacts, adding the water is still safe for recreation for now.
Crews said it could take up to a week to fully address the issue.
NBC Bay Area's Velena Jones contributed to the report.
