When the Kelli Michelle returned from a successful fishing trip, one of its beloved crew members didn't make it back. Joseph McCartan was shrimping with two others off the coast of Texas. On the way home, family members say McCartan wasn't feeling well, so he went into the bunker.
But when a crew member went to check on him, McCartan was gone."They went down and searched the boat one time and they went on the back deck. They went down again and searched the whole boat. That's when they decided to call the Coast Guard," said Bradley Steele, family friend.
The Coast Guard searched for 72 hours, but with no luck. Now, family members are preparing for the worst.McCartan has a wife and three kids who miss him dearly and desperately want answers."They just don't know. There's so many unanswered questions. The family is just so devastated and they just want to know what happened," said Steele.
Family members say McCartan has been shrimping all of his life. He was well aware of the dangers of the water. Now, crew members are baffled."The people on the boat were his family. They really loved Joe. They would do anything for him and Joe was the same type of person. He'd give you the shirt off his back. He was just a real good guy," said Steele.
Family members say the worst part of the ordeal is telling McCartan's kids. They just broke the news to his oldest daughter."They told her god got her daddy out of the water and he's in heaven now. Hopefully, that will help the family a little bit," said Steele.McCartan's family would like the Coast Guard to continue the search. If you know anything about his whereabouts, call the Coast Guard immediately.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Offshore drilling can harmoniously exist with nature — and does so
I believe the Asheville Citizen-Times’ editorial, “Expanded offshore drilling is no answer to our energy crisis” (AC-T, July 16), is in desperate need of a response.
It’s one thing to take a position on an issue, but it’s quite another to use as the foundation for your arguments fears that have little basis in reality, and the editorial to which I refer has a few of them.
First and foremost is the assumption that because the North Carolina coast is indeed in “Hurricane Alley” that any drilling rigs off the Carolina coast would be in danger, thus they would pose an immediate threat to the coast of Carolina. Oil companies pay engineers a lot of money to design those rigs to withstand all that Mother Nature can dish out. While they’re not completely foolproof, the rigs do have an outstanding safety record considering what they have to endure.
Rigs withstand storms
In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ripped through the Gulf of Mexico. At least two dozen active rigs were damaged to some degree, but little oil was lost. A Houston Chronicle article dated Nov. 13, 2005 (“Spills from hurricanes staining the coast”), details the environmental disasters of the those two hurricanes, but a close examination of the article shows that the vast majority of the spills came from damaged storage tanks, not off-shore rigs. In fact, what oil leaked from the rigs is described in the article this way, “The spills are so thin and evaporate so easily that they likely disappeared before anyone could reach them.” In other words, they were of little consequence.
The solution obviously would be that if drilling is to take place of the coast of Carolina, then the storage of whatever crude is produced should be handled somewhere else.
Not really pristine
The second fear — that somehow having oil rigs off the Carolina coast automatically means an end to pristine beaches — is pure hogwash as well. I grew up along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi (which shares the same Gulf waters as rigs off the coast of Louisiana), and never once did I ever see an oil slick at the beach, and the beach was never closed due to any oil-related matter that I can remember. I just returned from a visit to Sunset Beach along the Carolina coast, and it is indeed beautiful, but I wouldn’t call it pristine.
Every day, I found myself picking discarded lures, floats, parts of fishing nets, plastics, Styrofoam and who knows what else off the sand and out of the surf. Should we ban the fishing and shrimping industries too? How about tourists? Certainly, they’re polluting as much, if not more, than the folks who make their living out in the water.
The final fear stated in the AC-T editorial is the fear that the rigs will somehow interrupt or ruin the fishing industry in Carolina and, somehow, bird habitats (that one’s a real stretch). The U.S. has had active rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for decades, and I can personally attest to the fine fishing and abundant seafood to be found there. I have a freezer full of it thanks to a recent trip to my parents’ house in Mississippi.
Abundant marine life
Fishermen along the Gulf have long known that fish love to hang around the artificial reefs represented by the rigs — reefs teeming with marine life that usually mean great fishing. Ask any charter captain along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana or Mississippi where the good fishing is, and he’ll tell you, he’s headed out to the rigs. I’ve been fishing out in the Gulf, and the water is crystal-clear south of the barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi. My point is oil rigs off the coast of Carolina might actually enhance, not ruin, Carolina’s fishing industry.
Perhaps I should invite my colleagues on the editorial staff down to the Gulf on a fact-finding mission. I’m sure it won’t change their minds about drilling off the Carolina coast, but at least they’ll know that offshore drilling can harmoniously exist with nature, and we can eat some great seafood while we’re down there.
Doug Mayer is a multimedia specialist for the Asheville Citizen-Times. He lives in Fletcher.
It’s one thing to take a position on an issue, but it’s quite another to use as the foundation for your arguments fears that have little basis in reality, and the editorial to which I refer has a few of them.
First and foremost is the assumption that because the North Carolina coast is indeed in “Hurricane Alley” that any drilling rigs off the Carolina coast would be in danger, thus they would pose an immediate threat to the coast of Carolina. Oil companies pay engineers a lot of money to design those rigs to withstand all that Mother Nature can dish out. While they’re not completely foolproof, the rigs do have an outstanding safety record considering what they have to endure.
Rigs withstand storms
In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ripped through the Gulf of Mexico. At least two dozen active rigs were damaged to some degree, but little oil was lost. A Houston Chronicle article dated Nov. 13, 2005 (“Spills from hurricanes staining the coast”), details the environmental disasters of the those two hurricanes, but a close examination of the article shows that the vast majority of the spills came from damaged storage tanks, not off-shore rigs. In fact, what oil leaked from the rigs is described in the article this way, “The spills are so thin and evaporate so easily that they likely disappeared before anyone could reach them.” In other words, they were of little consequence.
The solution obviously would be that if drilling is to take place of the coast of Carolina, then the storage of whatever crude is produced should be handled somewhere else.
Not really pristine
The second fear — that somehow having oil rigs off the Carolina coast automatically means an end to pristine beaches — is pure hogwash as well. I grew up along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi (which shares the same Gulf waters as rigs off the coast of Louisiana), and never once did I ever see an oil slick at the beach, and the beach was never closed due to any oil-related matter that I can remember. I just returned from a visit to Sunset Beach along the Carolina coast, and it is indeed beautiful, but I wouldn’t call it pristine.
Every day, I found myself picking discarded lures, floats, parts of fishing nets, plastics, Styrofoam and who knows what else off the sand and out of the surf. Should we ban the fishing and shrimping industries too? How about tourists? Certainly, they’re polluting as much, if not more, than the folks who make their living out in the water.
The final fear stated in the AC-T editorial is the fear that the rigs will somehow interrupt or ruin the fishing industry in Carolina and, somehow, bird habitats (that one’s a real stretch). The U.S. has had active rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for decades, and I can personally attest to the fine fishing and abundant seafood to be found there. I have a freezer full of it thanks to a recent trip to my parents’ house in Mississippi.
Abundant marine life
Fishermen along the Gulf have long known that fish love to hang around the artificial reefs represented by the rigs — reefs teeming with marine life that usually mean great fishing. Ask any charter captain along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana or Mississippi where the good fishing is, and he’ll tell you, he’s headed out to the rigs. I’ve been fishing out in the Gulf, and the water is crystal-clear south of the barrier islands off the coast of Mississippi. My point is oil rigs off the coast of Carolina might actually enhance, not ruin, Carolina’s fishing industry.
Perhaps I should invite my colleagues on the editorial staff down to the Gulf on a fact-finding mission. I’m sure it won’t change their minds about drilling off the Carolina coast, but at least they’ll know that offshore drilling can harmoniously exist with nature, and we can eat some great seafood while we’re down there.
Doug Mayer is a multimedia specialist for the Asheville Citizen-Times. He lives in Fletcher.
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