Category: News and Notes

Diver and ROV observations show a 13-inch (33cm) split has been found in a 4,000 foot (1,220 m) section of Amplify Energy’s 41-yr old pipeline off the coast of Southern California, spilling ~144,000 gallons (~545,000 L) of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, killing wildlife and contaminating shorelines.

Authorities believe the rupture may have been caused by a ship’s anchor sometime in the very early hours of Saturday morning. The pipeline has been shutdown while the incident is under investigation and clean-up activities are underway.

Full article at: CNN06oct21

With all the rain and high winds we have been getting lately (not to mention the Sydney COVID lock-down), it has been very hard to get out and under the water to do any exploring lately. Visibility has been terrible and the swells… just aren’t swell.

Dave did get out yesterday for a quick look around Batemans Bay and we got a quick glimpse of this fish, which we haven’t seen before. We are pretty sure it is an adult male Senator Wrasse, with very distinctive white ventral fins

We had never heard of the Hranice Abyss before catching sight of this article. Hranická Propast, in the Czech Republic, is the world’s deepest underwater cave with a depth of 1,325 feet (404m), as measured by an ROV. The cave was formed by hot, CO2-filled, mineral water bubbling up from an underground spring.

Full article at: ThomasInsights 15sep21

We love hearing about people using ROVs for safer inspection of vessels and other underwater assets. In this article, the US Navy inspected the USS George H.W. Bush with an ROV:

Navy Uses Underwater ROV Technology for Inspections