Does anyone else think it curious that a spill of heavy fueloil measuring 9 square nautical miles or 22.5 square kilometers occurred 2 days ago while an aircraft carrier was refueling 50 miles off the Fastnet Rock in West Cork and there is hardly any reporting of it in the media.
The British think it serious enough to send a RN Destroyer into Irish waters, and we an Island nation ignore it and can only muster a 28 year old fisheries boat to attend.

Is it that it happened in Cork?
Is it that we are not aware that we are living on an island?

Bloomberg.com: U.K. & Ireland

In addition to the Russian aircraft carrier and tanker, a British destroyer, a second tanker and the Irish naval vessel L.E. Aisling were on the scene, south of Fastnet, the Coast Guard said.

A guy in air traffic control told me they (the russians) were holding exercises off our coast, in international waters.

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its been on the news all day, it was reported this morning, as the russians fault but they seem to be denying now? they didn't think it was so big this morning

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It was a ship from the Russian navy. Now if was an English Battleship or an American Aircraft carrier we would have been hearing about it all day. Kenny would have had some 'independent scientist' telling us how Ireland would be wiped off the map if the nuclear ordinance had gone off. Joe Duffy would have had all the wing-nuts protesting at Shannon on screeching about imperialism. Charlie Bird would have been in dingy off the cost dressed in in a wet-suit dipping a seagull into a pool of oil.

But is was the Russians so RTE put the story at the bottom of the news agenda. Because those Russians are just cuddly bears and won't harm a fly.

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Twas first flagged here last night by southwestkerry on the thread about the subs that were playing bumpers. At that time though it was a smaller story, as the version abroad was that it was minor quantities, far away, and posing no threat. That has all changed now. 50 miles south of the Fastnet is far too close for comfort.

Another thing that has changed is that the Russians are saying Nyet, it was not us. Apparently we are now asking them for a specimen. Of the oil in their boats. To do a CSI job.

All we can really do at the moment is hope wind and tides are favourable.

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I think it´s pretty apalling stuff that our waters are being used as exercise and refueling areas without our knowledge. If a fuel spliiage were to happen from foreign warships in another nations waters there would be an outcry. This is a mere 50 miles from our coast in our own EEZ.
British or US or Russian armoured personnel carriers crashing or causing damage in Ballinasloe would be a problem. But 50 miles off our coast it´s not such a big deal.
I don´t understand why the government is not protesting this.

A fuel spill caused by human error 50 miles off the fastnet isn´t international waters enough for me. This is probably the Aircraft Carrier Group on return from Venezuela which was in the news lately. Why are the Brits on scene with more naval assets than us in our waters.

AFAIK Under international treaties, we can only control what goes on up to 24 NM out. Although the EEZ extends further, that only relates to fishing and underwater oil exploration and mining.

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Maybe it was the government pulled it because we are toothless to protect our waters or observe whats going on. I just think it´s incredible that we can send an army to Chad, and we cannot muster something like a real warship to protect our coasts and fisheries from an environmental disaster by these pirates. Not the fault of Naval Personnel, they do the best with what they have. But, this is an embarrassment that we cannot deter these cowboys. It wouldn´t have happened in British or Norwegian waters.

I acknowledge that, but it is still our area of control, even if it is outside our smaller territorial waters. The Atlantic is huge, if our area was properly patroled and controled there would be no fear of them conducting exercises off the coast. Innocent passage fine, pass through as they wish. But refueling and live weapons fire exercises within 50 nautical miles of fastnet is ridiculous.