Canada’s 6km of booms

Canada is sending 3,000 metres of ocean booms to help contain the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, this is half of Canada’s total stock of booms.

The fact that Canada has a total of 6km of such booms seems pretty worrisome, given that the Orphan Basin project in Newfoundland is drilling in even deeper water than BP was, oil platforms off the east coast are threatened by icebergs, and are considering drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic.

If there was a problem with the Hibernia or White Rose platforms, could Canada’s 6km of booms really do much to prevent damage to marine and shoreline ecosystems? Consider that, if the current Gulf spill was centred in Ottawa, it would now extend from Algonquin Park to Montreal.

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