...two steps back

Conservationists all over the world spend their lives trying to save the reefs, one of the world's most vulnerable and important ecosystems, but people will still do things like this, for reasons unknown.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/04/science/AP-AS-Australia-Coal-Carrier.html?_r=1&ref=global-home



A coal carrying ship ran aground on Australia's Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Gladstone, a port I was in not too long ago. The area on land was overrun with mines and factories, the sea was full of coal-carriers waiting for the dollar to go down before they off loaded their supplies, and our boat was covered in a layer of grime from all the soot in the air after only one day. This, of course Chinese, ship is leaking oil on what is an already dying ecosystem. I read this article with my jaw dropped and scratching my head...is it really that hard to stay in the shipping lane? They are already promoting a practice that is harming our environment, why make it worse by ramming full speed into a World Heritage site in a protected area where shipping is illegal? I don't even want to know what they were doing and I hope with all of my heart the ship does not break up and leak any further.