Mt Irvine Bay Watersports is a frontline Tobago tourism service provider. The oil spill from the wrecked Gulfstream affects our income. In this blogpost we – as a local stakeholder, discuss the ‘people’ aspect of current struggle to disrupt the flow of oil from the wreck.

In a previous entry we posited via zombie analogy the process of battling an oil spill, essentially describing war against environmental and economic zombies that pose hazard to our well-being. Luckily, if that is the word to use now, our country has developed an oil spill contingency plan. That document has identified the various sources from which people will come who are qualified and outfitted to deal with our present event.

Image courtesy Sean McCoon

Is that happening as we enter the seventh day of the spill? We have indeed gotten the people. Incident command is populated by the author of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, Maritime Services Division, the Coast Guard, Environmental stewardship is well catered to, given the august presence of the Environmental Management Authority and the scientists from the Institute of Marine Affairs. There are many more people involved but hopefully you get the picture. We’ve got resources and qualified people and the zombies that want to take out Tobago’s fragile ecosystems are gonna get killed. (Again).

Except. After seven days of working a relatively non-remote site and despite almost every modern convenience that a mature oil producing country can bring to bear, we still are nowhere near resolving the issues. The barriers to resolution are plural. We have a vessel on a delicate nearshore locale and despite happy incident of balmy calm Caribbean waters no progress is being made.

The people at the site are saying the booms aren’t working. Stakeholders are saying those qualified people brought the wrong gear – as its not like geography around Cove Point is undocumented. Fer chrissakes comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessments exist. Were done for the marina proposed (by the Tobago Plantations Company) and for the feed line to the National Gas Company’s proposed gas hub. These are not trivial studies. Relevant too, given the study area in both EIA’s overlap and include the nearshore where the inundation is greatest.

What is apparent here is, those ‘correct’ people are somehow forgetting part of their training spoke to customising solutions to local affected conditions. Environment Tobago, a local NGO consulted on this scenario suggested that perhaps non-skilled, non-oilspill savvy people be brought to bear. That the shallow water might be just the place to deploy hommade booms utilising wrapping plastic strips for instance.

However while the ‘boom’ oversight is entering its early arc of clusterfook. The next thing Tobago stakeholders might want to watch out for is the use of dispersant. Oil dispersant may be approved for offshore spills but its not something watersport companines (for instance) want to see used in their lagoons and near their beaches. Long and short, in a war against zombies it can be hard at times to tell just who is the enemy. It could turn out to be the good guys.

The wreck of the so-called Gulfstream on our southwest coast is likely a zombie sent to test Tobago’s adaptive capacity in case there was ever a ‘big’ spill. Don’t get me wrong, the ongoing event is the real thing – There is black, brownish very goo-ey oil-like substance oozing out of the hull and in the nearshore area, marine interests and coastal ecosystems are suffering.

First though let’s sort this zombie business. Software engineers that is hackers of computer systems use a bombardment tool to test the ability of a network to fend off – you guessed it, hackers. In pretty much the same way, if we look for the silver lining in the Gulfstream cloud – still ominously looming over Tobago, last week’s visitation by the dead (but still hauling oil) Gulfstream, provides a perfect test of this island’s capacity to deal with hazards that come from being in an oil spill zone.

But just how exposed are we? One might say Very. Trinidad and Tobago’s that is our own oil fields, lie all around Tobago. As concerns the active, producing blocks on the current or risky side are just sixty miles away; up-current. Further south there are the burgeoning prospects in Guyana. Immediately after, still looking south, also washed by the Guyanas Current, are the active fields of Suriname.

As with any zombie conflict, you’d want to ensure your assets are protected. In Tobago’s Gulfstream case those have been identified as its coastal zone; taken to include the mangrove forest system of Petit Trou, the sea floor, seawater column and the sea surface of the near shore zone in the affected locale.

The weapons needed to ward of the zombie/Gulfstream threat are the usual; booms, skimmers, dispersants and protective gear for the people going into the zones itself. Also classed as weaponry but probably better described as logistical support (for deploying aforementioned tools of war) are the vessels, tractors, trucks and the myriad list that gets runaway hydrocarbon pulled, pushed, lifted and washed.

The biggest asset though is the same as with any war; people. Live thinking people are going to be needed to fend off the zombie that is runaway oil. I’ll come to that.

Its February 2024 and Tobago is entering the Carnival weekend with an oil spill on its coast and the equally unpleasant prospect of tonnes of single use plastic and styrofoam being dumped on it streets. For folks like us; revelers/appreciators of the watery domain – the double concern is, is the carnival itself a sign of poor use and stewardship of Tobago’s bounty?

If I were to concede to my superstitious alter ego I’d say our collective behaviour is pretty much what the Holy Book speaks of in the time of Babylon. Then again, this is just a watersports blog and reference to anything aside from snorkelling, kayaking and stand-up-paddling just isn’t kosher.

Its tempting to drift (note the watery allude) into a criticism of our government agencies, but these in the end are just ordinary people. Who to be fair, deserve their day on the streets to – you guessed it, toss their share of garbage how and where their drunken asses feel.

Now I’m not against the carnival. Wouldn’t want to give anyone the idea that a watersport enthusiast is skeptical of the joys of waddling, waving and wallowing in a sea of waste under stinging hot sun. But such are the breaks. Talking of breaks. The waves of Mt Irvine are going to be happening this weekend. Hope you survive the carnival.

Got to thinking about it and came to a realisation. The world of watersport is a fair reflection of our deep-rooted connection to water-bodies. I may even go so far as to say water provides a holistic arena more so than the the sum of all other avenues available to ordinary people. Let’s forget for a moment the value-add of water to true physical fitness (though by the time we’re done the omission might make sense). Let’s look a general look at the space watersports controls instead.

The aquatic environment is diverse enough occupy the attention of the most fickle or attentive mind. Shoreside bodies offer reefs, flats, waves and the vast array of life that call such locales home. Offshore there are the activities that can take place topside, such as sailing, ocean racing – whether motorised or wind-powered, or simply as place to call home, if mobility is a factor. Lakes and rivers we do not discount. These are just as valuable watersport venues, offering anglers a more sedate option than their counterparts who care to venture into the deep blue.

Water affords athletes a training ground that bespoke facilities on land have quite a hard time matching. The horse-racing community for instance exercise their charges in order to build muscle strength at no cost to joint or tenon wear – this holds just as true for your normal bi-pedal sportsperson. In the same vein, water provide ‘load’ without a premium, pretty much as some use it for resistance.

Load control is also part of the watery skills that surfers demonstrate via their nifty maneuvers. Which leads us to contemplate the value of watersport to the hardcore individualist: Some folks just don’t like having the competitive outcome of a sport depend on several people.

Health I’ve just touched on with that resistance paragraph but it is no trivial matter for those who may be ailing and cannot walk, run or even stroll. In which case just lolling in water is as good a medicine as anything that can be got from a bottle.

But watersport doesn’t need to stop at watersport. Its a major crosstraining space. Consider the benefit of being able to dive proficiently before entering training as a Navy SEAL. Consider the level of confidence commandos and even ordinary military seamen get by being able to master something in the watersport arena before joing the military. So yeh. Watersports is the bizness.