Tug towing disabled Russian container ship to port

A large American tug boat was pulling a disabled Russian cargo ship to a port on British Columbia's coast, ending fears that the vessel carrying hundreds of tons of fuel would drift ashore, hit rocks and spill.
Lt Paul Pendergast of the Canadian Forces' Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said the tug Barbara Foss arrived yesterday evening and secured a line to the Russian ship. He said the tow of the Simushir was going well.
The owners of the Russian vessel plan to have it taken to Prince Rupert, the nearest container ship port, 171 kilometers away from where the tow operation began, another rescue spokesperson, Acting Sub Lt Melissa Kia, said today.

Kia said the winds and seas have calmed significantly since yesterday, and at their current speed of seven nautical miles per hour (13 kilometers per hour) the ships should reach Prince Rupert later today.
The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the US Coast Guard cutter Spar are providing escort service.
The Simushir lost power due to a mechanical failure late Thursday off Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, as it made its way from Everett in Washington state to Russia.

The Canadian Coast Guard ship Gordon Reid earlier had started towing the disabled ship away from shore, but a towline got detached and the ship was adrift again for six hours yesterday.

The 10 crew members were trying to repair the broken oil heater that has left the vessel disabled, Royal Canadian Navy Lt Greg Menzies said.
The fear of oil spills is especially acute in British Columbia, where residents remember the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989. Such worries have fed fierce opposition, particularly from environmentalists and Canada's native tribes, to a proposal to build a pipeline that would carry oil from Canada's Alberta oil sands to a terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia, for shipment to Asia.
Opponents say the proposed pipeline would bring about 220 large oil tankers a year to the province's coast.

The president of the Council of the Haida Nation warned Friday that a storm coming into the area was expected to push the ship onto the rocky shore, but President Pete Lantin later said their worst fears had subsided.
"If the weather picks up it could compromise that, but as of right now there is a little sense of relief that we might have averted catastrophe here," Lantin said. About 5,000 people live on the islands and fish for food nearby, Lantin said.
The Simushir, which is about 440 feet (135 meters) long, was carrying a range of hydrocarbons, mining materials and other related chemicals. That included 400 tons of bunker oil and 50 tons of diesel.