Journal Editorial

Make tug a priority

Only one government-sponsored rescue tug, the Barbara Foss, patrols the hazardous waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Despite the tug’s invaluable service protecting one of America’s most unique and beautiful environments, it is unsure whether the government will continue to fund it. If the Barbara Foss does not get funding, an oil spill here is inevitable.

The state and federal governments should treat the need for a rescue tug as a priority and a necessity, not an option. A rescue tug should be permanently funded.

More than 6,000 ships use the hazardous channel every year, sharing it with multitudes of fishing and sight-seeing boats. The ships are already taking their toll on marine wildlife through engine disturbance and waste but the effects of an oil spill would be catastrophic.

The possibility of an oil spill became even more evident on Jan. 19, when a tug boat collided with a tanker in stormy seas in Rosario Strait, southwest of Anacortes. Luckily, no oil was spilled and the tug boat was escorted to shore by a local pollution control vessel.

The Barbara Foss is a 126-foot rescue tug that once towed cargo on trans-ocean voyages. The tug, which is contracted from Foss Maritime Services, is stationed in Neah Bay through a partnership with the state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Coast Guard. It responds to most calls west of Port Angeles, including many coastal regions not covered by Coast Guard radar.

Since September, the Barbara Foss has been called to the scene of seven maritime accidents, five of them since Thanksgiving weekend. On Jan. 3, the Barbara Foss assisted a tug, Pacific Avenger, that lost steering in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. The tug was towing a barge laden with 2.1 million gallons of diesel fuel.

The state government will fund the boat until spring and Gov. Gary Locke has set out $1.2 million to fund the vessel for another winter of service. The state government was hoping that the federal government would take over funding but that now seems unlikely. Groups such as People for Puget Sound are lobbying hard for legislators to provide more money.

Whether the Barbara Foss is there or not, the danger of oil spills will only continue to grow. Most of the tankers that regularly use the Strait of Juan de Fuca are carrying two to three times more oil than the Exxon Valdez spilled in 1989. That spill covered more than 1,100 miles of Alaskan coastline.

It would only take one tanker to collide with another vessel, or lose control and run up on rocks, to coat Puget Sound and Olympic Peninsula beaches with oil. One spill in the Strait of Juan de Fuca or nearby waters could not only devastate the delicate marine ecosystem of the San Juan Islands but also the commercial fishing and shell-fishing industries. Clearly the risks are far too great to have no rescue tug, when one can barely protect the region.

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