Australia contaminates Indonesia sea with toxic chemicals

Antara News, Sunday, October 31, 2010 23:00 WIB

Kupang, E Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has sprayed the Timor Sea with dispersants containing highly toxic chemicals to sink the oil spill from the Montara oil field, a non-governmental organization said.

Ferdi Tanoni, director of the Kupang-based West Timor Care Foundation said on Sunday information on the matter came from reports of a meeting between the Australian Senate and AMSA held in Canberra last week.

The chemicals that had been sprayed was said to be one of the world`s most dangerous chemicals, Tanoni added, and actually had already been banned.

After the incident, Tanoni said, the foundation has received reports on the death of eight people and 30 poisonous cases after the consumption of fish in the waters around the contaminated areas.

The foundation was the only Indonesian NGO that has filed a legal action with the Australian independent investigation commission after the oil spill caused by the explosion on the Montara oil rig in the West Atlas block that has contaminated the Timor Sea on August 21, 2009.

Tanoni said that the Australian Senate had asked the organization for comments on the use of the toxic dispersant for discussion in Canberra. The Green party of Australia had sent him a 20-page letter asking for comments on the incident.

"We have quickly answered the letter by sending evidence via electronic mail on Friday (Oct. 22) to the office of Green party in Canberra," he said.

Tanoni also hoped President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will raise the issue in his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard who is scheduled to visit Indonesia on November 1 and 2.

The foundation proposes the setting up of an independent investigation team to verify the case, Tanoni said.

The case was said to be serious both financially and physically to the people living close to the contaminated areas as many fish have disappeared while the remaining are poisonous.

Surfers survived tsunami on resort's upper floor

Google/AP

Markus, right, and his sister Lisna cry after they found their mother dead in a tsunami at Munte village, North Pagai island, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 29, 2010. The toll from Monday's tsunami rose to more than 400 on Friday as officials found more bodies, and about 300 people were still missing, according to a provincial disaster management center official. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Sebastian Carvallo was showing surfing videos to fellow guests on his last night at an island resort off western Indonesia when the powerful earthquake struck. When he heard a distant roar two minutes later, he knew instantly that he had to run.

The Chilean surfer grabbed his computer and his camera, rounded up the other guests and rushed to the highest spot they could find: the third floor of the thatch-roofed beach resort.

From that vantage point overlooking the lagoon, Carvallo and the others had a terrifying front-row seat Monday night as three towering waves of a tsunami struck, shaking the building so violently they thought it would collapse.

It was there they huddled together and rode out the waves that killed at least 400 people in the Mentawai island chain off about 80 miles (130 kilometers) off Sumatra.

"It was noise and chaos. You can hear the water coming, coming, coming," Carvallo, 29, said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

"And then before the second wave hit the building, everyone was screaming and when the wave hit the building you could only hear people praying," he said.

A videographer, Carvallo managed to shoot the frenzied moments of panic inside the Macoroni Surf Resort on North Pagai.

He estimated that two of the waves were at least 16 feet (5 meters) high. Early reports said there was only one wave that was 10 feet (3 meters) high, but some witnesses have since described one or more waves that were taller.

The Mentawai islands are revered by surfers for their consistently high swells and perfectly formed waves breaking on their shores in the Indian Ocean. Dozens of surfing resorts and wave-chasing boats operate there and after the tsunami, many have lent their boats to the relief effort.

Carvallo was wrapping up an eight-week stay on North Pagai, where the resort owner had hired him to make promotional videos.

Having traveled to the Mentawais once before for the surf, he had jumped at the chance — provided he still had time to catch a few waves too. He had been planning one last surf in the morning before he left because the forecast was for unusually big waves.

On Monday, Carvallo was showing some surfing videos he'd shot earlier in the day to other guests — all surfers or surf instructors — on the ground floor of the resort's restaurant when the earthquake struck at 9:42 p.m.

"Two minutes later, we heard this huge noise, like a train out of control. We just ran to the top of the building," he said.

Carvallo, who owns a surf tour company in Chile, said his childhood in his seismically active homeland taught him to seek higher ground after an earthquake near the coast. He urged everyone to run to the top floor — even persuading a few guests who he said wanted to keep drinking beer at the bar.

Incredibly, all 19 guests and eight Indonesian staff at the resort survived — even though five people were caught outside.

Two of them climbed palm trees to escape the high water and three others wrapped their arms around tree trunks and clung for their lives.

Carvallo described the ordeal as "the scariest moment in my life."

After daylight Tuesday, Carvallo shot video of destroyed villas and the debris on the shore.

By Friday, Carvallo was out of the tsunami zone and headed back to Chile, grateful to have survived. "At the moment, I'd like to be safe," he said.

Still, he said he'd almost certainly return to Indonesia one day, perhaps to the same islands.

"In my opinion, Mentawais is a paradise," he said. "It's a perfect place for surf in the world. And the people are very nice."

The Southern Cross has gone missing with nine Australians on board

Related Article:

Concerns Held for Safety of Six Foreigners After Indonesia Tsunami

Australian charter boat rushes to surf camp after tsunami

Hospital ship KRI Soeharso sent to Mentawai

Antara News, Wednesday, October 27, 2010 20:35 WIB

Surabaya, East Java (ANTARA News) - The naval hospital ship KRI Dr Soeharso has cancelled a journey to Wasior, Papua, and is now preparing to sail to Mentawai to help tsunami victims there.

Naval hospital ship KRI Dr Soeharso

"The ship was supposed to leave today for Wasior but last night the commander of the National Defense Forces (TNI) told the navy chief of staff to cancel the plan and ordered it to go to Mentawai instead," Eastern Fleet Command spokesman Lt Col Yayan Sugiana said here on Wednesday.

The hospital ship is scheduled to leave for Mentawai on Thursday morning and would be there for a month.

"The ship was initially scheduled to conduct a humanitarian mission in Wasior (recently hit by flash floods) for a month. So its task in Mentawai will be the same," he said.

The ship would carry logistics such as food, beverages and medical supplies initially allocated for flood victims in Wasior.

The ship will also carry navy personnel and 22 doctors and nurses experienced in varius disciplines.

He said the Esatern Fleet Command is still waiting for further orders from the TNI commander and the navy chief of staff on assigning more ships to Mentawai.

"For the time being we will send one because three naval ships from the Western Fleet command have already been sent there," he said.

Five naval ships from the Eastern fleet command are now still in Wasior including the KRI Kalakay that carried logistical supplies from Manokwari, Papua.

Several ship crews carry aid into KM Labobar ship at Teluk Bayur port in Padang, West Sumatra, on Friday. Bad weather had hampered distribution of aid and volunteers from Jakarta and Padang to tsunami-hit Mentawai Islands. (JP / Antara/Yudhi Mahatma)

Related Articles:

Indonesian President Promises to Beef Up Crisis Response Agency

Indonesian tsunami zone welcomes aid shipments

Army deploys two battalions to Mentawai

Padang naval base deploys four warships to help Mentawai victims

'No alert' in Indonesian tsunami

BBC News, 27 October 2010 Last updated at 13:43 GMT

A crucial link in Indonesia's tsunami warning system was not working during Monday's tsunami because it had been vandalised, says an Indonesian official.

Whole villages were wiped out by the tsunami

Hundreds of people were killed and many are missing as a result of the tsunami, which was generated by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra.

The earthquake unleashed a 3m-high (10ft) wave that crashed into the remote Mentawai islands, levelling a number of villages.

Survivors have said no warning was given.

Ridwan Jamaluddin, of the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, told the BBC's Indonesian service that two buoys off the Mentawai islands were vandalised and so out of service.

"We don't say they are broken down but they were vandalised and the equipment is very expensive. It cost us five billion rupiah each (£353,000; $560,000).

Another official, from the Indonesian Climatology Agency told the BBC's Indonesian service that both tide gauges and buoys are used to detect a tsunami, but the buoys are more important to generating an early warning.

"To predict a tsunami, we need the data from the buoy and the tide gauge, which is located near the beach. The buoy is more important because it is on the sea, so it will record the wave much quicker that the tide gauge," said the official, named Fauzi.

Difficulties

Residents of the Mentawai islands have told the BBC they heard no tsunami warning.

"There was not any siren to warn people in Sikakap [a small town on North Pagai island]," said Ferdinand Salamanang.

"Yes there was a quake and tsunami detection system in our port, but they are broken down. We did not hear any warning this time."

Almost exactly two years ago Indonesia launched its new tsunami early warning centre, designed to give people in coastal areas enough time to escape any waves before they reach land.

1. Recorder on seabed measures pressure and sends data to buoy.
2. Buoy also detects changes in sea level and motion. Tide gauges, usually sited on land, detect tidal changes.
3. Information is transmitted via satellite to ground stations which assess risk of tsunami.

The project was launched after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, which hit the country in 2004.

A quarter of a million people on the ocean shores died, more than half of them in the Indonesian province of Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra and close to the earthquake's epicentre.

The system was meant to be completed in 2010 but it is still a work in progress, says Tiziana Bonapace, a disaster risk specialist with the UN.

"Earthquake and sea-level monitoring systems are in place, but what has proven more difficult is how to get warnings out to remote areas in time," she told the BBC.

"This remains the weakest link in the system, and unfortunately the tsunami hit one of the farthest outlying islands. Further exacerbating the situation is that buoys do malfunction, and many countries have been experiencing difficulties in this regard."

'Too late'

A more difficult challenge, she said, was instilling at the community level an awareness of the potential for disasters and how to prepare for them.

Even if the system had been fully functioning, the earthquake struck so close to the islands that an alert may not have given residents enough time to escape.

"Pagai island is very close to the epicentre, so the waves reached Pagai island in just five or 10 minutes," Ridwan Jamaluddin said.

"Even if the buoy is on, it is still too late to warn the people."

That view is echoed by Andrew Judge of SurfAid International, a humanitarian agency that has worked in the area for 10 years.

"The distance from the epicentre was very short... there's no time to act" on an alert, he told the BBC.

The Mentawai islands are very remote and communications are very difficult, he said. "Those people wouldn't have been reached by an alert."

Related Articles:

Warning Systems Often Do Not Help Tsunami Victims

Mentawaians never get tsunami warning

Early Lifting of Tsunami Warning Was Protocol: Agency

Parliament to evaluate BMKG for giving wrong information

Antara News, Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The House of Representatives (DPR)`s Commission V plans to evaluate the performance of the National Meteorological, Climatology, Geophysics Agency (BMKG), a legislator said.

"We will call BMKG officials after our recess to evaluate the performance of BMKG regarding information on tsunami in Mentawai," Lasarus, at Parliament Building, here, Wednesday.

He criticized BMKG for giving wrong information on the Mentawai tsunami.

When a magnitude-7.2 earthquake hit Mentawai Island on Monday evening (Oct 25), BMKG issued a warning that the earthquake could trigger tsunami. However, not long after that, BMKG issued information that the earthquake did not have the potential to cause tsunami.

"As an official government institution, BMKG is considered to have given the publlic misleading information which led to the deaths of hundreds of people. It`s obviously misleading. Why was BMKG so careless?" he said.

He also asked legislators from West Sumatra to react to the misleading information.

The House`s Commission V had fully supported BMKG so far, especially regarding the budget so that BMKG could work optimally to anticipate possible disasters and to correctly inform the public, he said.

The tsunami hit Mentawai islands, West Sumatra Province, following a 7.2 magnitude undersea earthquake on Monday night.

By Tuesday night, the death toll in the disasters rose to 112. At least 502 people were missing and thousands of others evacuated to safer grounds following the tsunami.

Aftershocks continued to happen in Mentawai, West Sumatra, following the magnitude-7.2 quake . A quake measuring 5.5 on the Richter Scale followed at 10 pm at a depth of 22 kilometers, 89 kilometers southwest of Pagai Selatan.

Another quake was also recorded at 5.0 on the Richter Scale at 10.31 pm at a depth of 34 kilometers, 51 kilometers southwest of Pagai Selatan.

Rescue workers struggle to free humpback whale

English.news.cn 2010-10-27

Rescue workers try to push a humpback whale that had became stranded back out to sea at Geriba beach in Buzios, 192 kilometers (119 miles) from Rio de Janeiro, October 26, 2010. The whales migrate north from Antarctica to mate from July to November off the coast of Brazil. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Editor: Bi Mingxin

Australian yacht safe after losing contact

Antara News, Wednesday, October 27, 2010 01:38 WIB

Padang, W Sumatra (ANTARA News) - A member of the West Sumatra association of windsurfing yachts said it had 10 tourists on board, including nine Australians and a Japanese, and a crew, was reported lost following the quake and tsunami, but sent a signal at 8.29 pm.

"We contacted the crew of the yacht `Southern Cross` at 8.29 pm, and everybody was safe," the association`s chairman Aim Zein said in Padang Tuesday night.

According to him, the tourists on "Southern Cross" said when they learnt about the 7.2-magnitude quake, they decided to head to the high seas.

But later they lost contact, which they managed to restore only on Tuesday, at 8.29 pm West Indonesia Time (WIB).

Following the report, he said, the Southern Cross departed from Mentawai-Padang, and in the small hours of Wednesday Oct 27 would reach Bungus Port in Padang.

In the meantime, another yacht "Midas Debora" caught fire but all the 20 tourists on board and a local crew of 10 had been rescued by Freedom III

Related Article:

Australian charter boat rushes to surf camp after tsunami

Australian charter boat rushes to surf camp after tsunami

News.com.au, By Fred Pawle and Sallie Don, October 26, 2010 5:31PM

The Southern Cross has gone missing with nine Australians on board

• 7.7-quake hits Indonesian islands
• Aussie charter boat hit by 3m wave
• Fears for nine missing Aussies
• Volcano watch: Red alert for eruption

THE father of an Australian surfing guide missing after a powerful undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia says he hopes his son is simply out of mobile phone range.

Chris Scurrah, formerly of Melbourne, was the skipper on board the Sumatran Surfariis charter boat Southern Cross when the 7.7-magnitude quake hit Kepulauan Mentawai, off Sumatra's west, last night.

Missing Southern Cross skipper Chris Scurrah
/ Facebook

A staff member of the Padang-based company said the Southern Cross has not made contact since the quake.

"There is one boat that we haven't been able to make contact with, the Southern Cross," Yuli, a staff member of the Padang-based company said.

"Among the passengers there are nine Australian citizens."

On board are Chris Scurrah, his fellow skipper Akinori Fujita from Japan, and eight other Australians.

Chris's dad, Hal Scurrah, said he had yet to hear from his son but hoped to have contact soon.

"My feeling is that he's possibly out of range, and hopefully he's all well," Mr Scurrah said.

"I keep watching news, and I keep trying to text him or contact him on Facebook. He'll have a laptop with him.

"Generally he's not out of contact for a long time because often they will go into a sheltered spot or into a local town for supplies. That's when they can make contact, too."

Chris Scurrah survived last year's 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia, texting his family that he was running inland after the quake hit Padang, home to nearly a million people on the coast of Sumatra.

More than 1100 people were killed during the quake last October.

Mr Scurrah said the family was used to his son being in dangerous situations.

"(It's) something we sort of live with," Mr Scurrah said. "We're always on our toes."

Mr Scurrah said he hoped his son was north of the area hit by the quake, as that was generally the direction he headed on surfing adventures lasting between 12 and 14 days.

"I think he's probably been out for three or four days," he said.

"Hopefully, he should be making contact pretty soon."

But Surfaid's Mentawai Islands Program Manager Tom Plummer said the missing boat had been close to the quake's epicentre.

"There are genuine fears," he said.

The Sumatran Surfariis charter boat company says it has not been able to contact its boat Southern Cross since the 7.7-magnitude quake hit Kepulauan Mentawai, off Sumatra's west, last night.

Earlier, another Australian charter boat was rushing to the surf camp at Macaronis Resort to find out what damage was inflicted by a tsunami that hit the region last night, The Australian reported.

The camp is at a break known as Macaronis, in the southern Mentawais.

Three boats were anchored nearby last night. Two of the boats were smashed into each other by the tsunami.

The Southern Cross has gone missing with nine
Australians on board / Supplied

One, the Midas, was destroyed. All passengers - mostly Australian surfers - are safe and accounted for.

Charter boat Freedom III is on its way to the Macaronis Resort to see what damage was inflicted, and whether the guests had been injured.

“Freedom III is on its way there now, to do its duty of care,” said World Surfaris manager Shaun Levings. “We’re still waiting on a report.”

Asked if he was concerned about the resort, Mr Levings said: “Absolutely. It’s not looking too good for them.”

The Macaronis Resort is owned and run by Australians. “The owners have put years of work in building this beautiful resort,” Mr Levings said.

Related Articles:

Australians Recount Terrifying Indonesia Tsunami Ordeal

Australian yacht safe after losing contact

Hundreds of houses hit by tsunami wave in West Sumatra

Permits Of 200 foreign fishing vessels to be withdrawn

Antara News, Monday, October 25, 2010

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Maritime and Fishery Minister Fadel Muhammad said on Monday that his ministry was about to process the withdrawal of the permits of about 200 foreign fishing vessels operating in Indonesia`s territorial waters.

"There are some 200 ships with foreign flags on which a process is underway for the withdrawal of their operating permits," said the minister, adding that the main reason for the action was the fact that the owners of the ships had not set up fish processing facilities in Indonesia as required.

The ships belong to companies in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and China.

In addition, he said, there were also foreign fishing boats that were catching fish in Indonesia`s territorial waters but selling their catches in border areas after transferring their catches to mother ships they operate.

The fisheries ministry, he said, had coordinated with the Indonesian navy in monitoring the practice.

There are currently a total of 700 fishing vessels flying foreign flags operating in Indonesian territorial waters.

Annulment of the permits would be done as Indonesia wants to have added value from fishery products caught inside Indonesian territory and therefore the catches by foreign fishing boats must be be processed in Indonesia.

Ministerial Decree No 17/2006 stipulates that the catches of foreign fishing vessels will be recorded in the future so that more accurate information on the fisheries industry can be gathered. Fish catches will no longer be allowed to be shipped out of Indonesia without being recorded.

With new evidence, RI calls 3rd meeting with oil-rig operator

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 10/25/2010

Indonesia has asked Thai oil-rig operator PTTEP to attend a third round of meetings, during which it hopes the company will agree to pay compensation for an oil spill that allegedly polluted vast swaths of the Timor Sea and Indonesian coastline.

Indonesia has asked for the meeting to be held in Jakarta early next month.

“We have sent them a letter requesting a meeting,” head of Indonesia’s legal team Masnellyarti Hilman told reporters on Friday. PTTEP had not replied to the request as of Sunday evening.

Masnellyarti said Indonesia would give PTTEP until the end of the month to study Indonesia’s

proposal.

She said Indonesia had submitted a catalogue of evidence for damage caused by the oil spill, including satellite images and a map showing impacted areas made by the National Aeronautic and Aviation Agency.

Indonesia’s team has also sent the company new samples of sea water taken in August that contain pollutants caused by the Montara oil spill.

“With the new data, we are confident that our demands based on financial losses are sound,” she said.

She declined to state the amount of financial losses. Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said earlier that Jakarta had demanded the oil company pay US$2.2 billion in damages.

Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said on Friday that the insurance arm of PTTEP would clarify data submitted by Indonesia to determine the total compensation.

An oil rig owned by PTTEP Australasia exploded in August 2009 in the Montara oil field off Australia’s north coast.

The Montara field was developed by Norwegian and Bermudan-owned Seadrill, and was operated by PTTEP Australasia, a unit of PTT – Thailand’s state-owned oil and gas company.

Indonesia’s team presented as evidence maps showing that the oil spill had impacted an area of 70,341 square kilometers in the Timor Sea, including nine Indonesian regencies.

The oil spill also destroyed seaweed farms cultivated by coastal communities in East Nusa Tenggara.

Data from the ministry of energy and mineral resources previously revealed that the hydrocarbons found in water samples taken from the Timor Sea matched those produced at the Montara platform.

The analysis made by Indonesia’s Environment Ministry revealed pollution levels in the Timor Sea had exceeded the tolerable level set by the Indonesian government.

The ministry took sea water samples in five areas in the Timur Sea.

It said the total suspended density (TSS) of particulate matter in the sea had reached 147 milligrams per liter, far higher than the tolerable level of 20 milligrams per liter.

The environmental agency in East Nusa Tenggara also found that pollutant levels in the sea exceeded tolerable levels set by the government.PTTEP said in a previous statement that Indonesia’s team had supplied no verifiable evidence to support its claims. 

The oil spill also destroyed seaweed farms cultivated by coastal communities in East Nusa Tenggara.