ing sources. Peter Neill , fo under of World Ocean O bservatory and interim director of OCF, will ass ume the role of executive director for both organizations . OCF was fo unded to incorporate experiential education principles to foster ocean literacy and leadership skills using traditio nal schooners as a platfo rm fo r secondary education . O ne new OCF program of note is their "Horizon Gap Program At Sea" fo r recent high school graduates loo king to broaden their life experien ce before college. Students will sign aboard the Spirit of Massachusetts fo r a 12-week educational sea adventure on a voyage covering mo re than 5, 000 miles with po rt stops in over a dozen countries in the Wes tern Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. Applications are now being accepted fo r the 2009 fall term . (O CF, 29 M cKown Street, Boothbay H arbor, M E 0453 8; Ph. 207 633-275 0 or toll free 800 724-7245; www.oceanclassroom . org) . . . The US Coast G u ard has released its marine casualty investigation rep ort for the collision b etween the motor vessel Cosco Busan and t h e San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on 7 November 2007, wh ich resulted in the disch arge of more than 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay. Acco rding to the report, the m ain cause of the accident was a navigational erro r by the pilot of the Cosco Busan, who navigated the vessel at a high , unsafe speed in near-zero vis-
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Cosco Busan with a 100-ft. gash amidships ibiliry, failed to properly m onitor the vessel's position and progress, and lost situational awaren ess. Also a t fault was the failure of the mas ter of the Cosco Busan to adequately m o nitor the actions of the pilot. A multi-agency Incident Specific Preparedness Review panel iss ued a detailed repo rt whi ch fo und that spill response personnel acted on a "worst case scenario" bas is, res ulting in one of the m ost aggressive and successful responses in recent histo ry, yielding an approxim ate 40% recovery rate of spi lled oil. (The USCG m arine
SEA HISTORY 127, SUMMER 2009
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