paDANG

A Taiwanese fishing boat ran aground at Padang Padang in Bali several days ago. Here is some additional detail, in the form of an email that was posted on Surfer message boards from someone who knows what is going on over there:

UPDATE!

The plan is to move all liquid off of that boat today, and set up some kind of harness system to facilitate pulling it off of the reef. Tomorrow am on the high tide we will try to remove it.

IF we can't get the boat off the reef by tomorrow am.. it's done.

This ideally would have happened today, but the tug boat etc.. couldn't get here..

It is a huge concern that sometimes the swell maps are off a bit.. and this is cutting it so close. Once that first line of West Swell begins to show... this is going to change everything.

Another thing.

Assuming we can get the boat off of the reef. We STILL have a huge clean up operation on our hands and have Only tomorrow to even think about it. The bottom of Padang is Littered with So much Dangerous Crap.

Knives, 1000's of Stainless, BIG, Fish hooks, All sorts of Ropes and cables.. So, please keep in mind that in a best case scenario, the boat get's off of the reef.. We still need to do an immediate clean up. Figuring that there will be spillage in even the best case scenarios.. add oil and sludge into the equation. PLUS.. we will have swell filling in. Bottom line.. IF we can get the boat off of the Reef tomorrow am.. We are going to need all hands to help. IF not.. we have a much bigger problem on our hands than many may be aware of. In any case..

We can probably use all hands, and boats or skis.. And any way things go there is a LOT of clean up work to be done in the next two days BEFORE the swell hits..

thanks for any help. and thanks for ALL of you who are commiting financial support to the costs of finding a solution to this. Not sure if many people realize what is really going on down there in the line up at Padang.. but I believe it's worse than most people think.. The words Environmental Disaster are not being overused here. If you are coming down to help out.. Bring some old clothes, old shoes, and some kind of face mask. It's a mix of Diesel, Motor Oil, and Rotting Shark Carcass in the line up at Padang these days.

Here's to hoping things work out. Never been to Bali, but it is high on the list.