Oil Spill Became Too Much For Boat Skipper

(June 24) -- Two weeks after he was hired by BP to help with the oil spill cleanup, William Allen Kruse killed himself.

The 55-year-old charter boat captain shot himself in the head Wednesday morning as he prepared to spend another day skimming oil off the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, clearing the spill that threatened to destroy his livelihood and community.
Kruse left no note, so it's impossible to know why he took his life. But those who knew him say the veteran fisherman and father of four was almost certainly the latest casualty in the gulf oil crisis, and a symbol of the spill's exacting human toll.

"There's not a doubt in my mind, the oil spill was the cause of this," Tom Ard, who fished alongside Kruse for 25 years, told AOL News this morning. "It was just too much for him."

In a phone interview, Ard, 39, the president of the Orange Beach Fishing Association, said Kruse was in his prime when he killed himself and had been enjoying taking his 13-year-old son out on his boat to teach him how to fish.
"He had everything going for him. He was at the top of his game," Ard said. "He was the kind of guy that made everyone smile, and he was one heck of a fisherman."

In Orange Beach, Ala., where Kruse ran a sport boat business for more than two decades, acquaintances of the man known as "Rookie" said he did not have any psychological problems. And many said he was no more devastated than anyone else in the community, which has been hit hard by the spill.

"He didn't show any signs he was going to do this that would have thrown up any red flags where you'd think you better keep an eye on him," Jason Bell, Kruse's co-captain, who knew him for a decade,told the Press-Register of Mobile, Ala.

"He wasn't any more aggravated with the whole situation than any of the rest of us," Bell said. "I hate to say it, but I'm surprised something like this hasn't already happened."

Bell said Kruse had planned on retiring soon. He declined comment this morning.

Ard described a community under a severe amount of stress that doesn't know what will become of businesses that have been in families for generations.

"This is something that you put your whole life and soul into. You've done it for 25 years. Just the thought of all that gone, when it's not your fault, you didn't do anything wrong ... that's a lot of stress," he said.

Ard is grateful to have been hired by BP to help in the cleanup efforts, but said the oil spill has threatened an entire way of life.

"The cleanup is all we've got right now. It's the only work here," he said.

The death of a second cleanup worker Wednesday was unrelated to the spill. The unnamed worker drowned in a swimming pool accident. But when Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen announced the deaths at a press conference Wednesday, they seemed to emphasize the human cost of the crisis anyway.

"On a more somber note,we had two deaths reported on people that were involved in this response earlier today," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families. We know this is a devastating thing to happen."

A BP official told AOL News today the company extends its condolences to the families.

Until now, the psychological toll of the disaster has not been widely discussed, but experts say the oil spill could cause emotional and social devastation in communities along the gulf.

Ard said the emotional toll of the spill killed his friend. "It's been a ton of stress on all of us," he said. "I guess everybody handles stress differently. And I guess he went off the deep end."

The Washington Post noted that Dr. Howard Osofsky, a Louisiana State University psychiatrist, said he'd noticed "an increase in suspiciousness, arguing and domestic violence" among those affected by the spill.

In Kruse's case, the boat captain had asked his staff to help him prepare to go out on the water one more time when he apparently chose to take his life instead.

"He had just let his deckhands off the boat and sent them to get something," Baldwin County Coroner Rod Steade told the Press-Register. "He was going to meet them at the fuel dock. They heard a pop, and when the boat didn't come around, they went back and found him."

Bell remembered Kruse as a kind man. "Even in the wintertime when things got tough, if you needed a little extra cash, he was always like, 'Here, take it,'" he said.

The community where Kruse lived is in mourning. But Ard said the town would recover.

"We are a very resilient bunch. We've had to deal with hurricanes and fishing closures and everything. I truly believe we'll all be fine. This morning we all went up, and we got to work," he said.
www.aolnews.com

Oil Skimming Ship Makes Stop In Virginia

I wonder how long it will take for all of this to get through the red tape? Finally a country coming to the United States in he time of great need!! Why didn't anyone think about this a loooong time ago? Surely, someone that deals with oil MUST have some idea of what this ship can possibly do. I don't buy it for a second that they didn't. So much time has been used on the "duh and um" factors.


NORFOLK, Va. — With no assurances it will be allowed to join the Gulf oil cleanup, a Taiwanese-owned ship billed as the world's largest skimming vessel is sailing Friday to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in hopes of gulping down 500,000 barrels a day of oily water.

The ship — the length of 3 1/2 football fields and 10 stories high — is designed to work 40 to 50 miles offshore and collect oily water through 12 vents on either side of its bow. It docked in Norfolk en route to the Gulf from Portugal, where it was retrofitted to skim the seas.

The owners of the "A Whale" said the new skimming approach has never been attempted on this scale.

"We really have to start showing people what we can do," said Bob Grantham, project coordinator for TMT Group, a Taiwan-based shipping company. "We're seriously looking at whether we can go on site and just try to do it ourselves. That's not a good solution. We need to work with everyone else."

The company is still negotiating with the Coast Guard to join the cleanup and does not have a contract with BP to perform the work. The company also needs environmental approval and waiver of a nearly century-old law aimed at protecting U.S. shipping interests.

Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil.

The company said it also needs a waiver of the 1920 Jones Act, which limits the activities of foreign-flagged ships in coastal U.S. waters.

Grantham said TMT was hopeful it could secure the necessary approvals during the ship's three-day passage to the Gulf. The Liberian-flagged ship was to leave Norfolk later Friday.

The converted oil tanker has the capacity of holding 2 million barrels, but would limit its holding tanks to 1 million barrels for environmental reasons. Oil skimmed up by the tanker would be separated from seawater, then transferred to another vessel.

"I believe this spill is unprecedented and you need an unprecedented solution," said T.K. Ong, senior vice president for TMT.

The effort received the endorsement of at least one Louisiana resident.

Edward Overton, a professor emeritus from Louisiana State University, was among the visitors at the port where the A Whale was berthed. He called the current cleanup inadequate.

"We need this ship," he told TMT executives. "That oil is already contaminating our shoreline."

www.chron.com

photos- Daily Press

Beach Wildlife Expert Helps With Rescue in the Gulf

VIRGINIA BEACH

Kathryn Owens decided to pursue a career in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. After seeing so much damage to birds, fish and marine life, "I just knew I wanted to help."

So it seems only natural that Owens was one of the first wildlife experts from Hampton Roads to do battle with the massive ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Owens, a deputy manager at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach, just returned from a two-week stint in Louisiana, where she helped to organize rescues of oil-covered birds and waterfowl.

The experience left her emotionally and physically drained. But she cannot wait to go back.

"It's a nightmare scenario," Owens said Monday, "but it's exactly where I needed to be and where I wanted to be."

Her boss, refuge manager Jared Brandwein, reported to the Gulf last week just as Owens was returning. Refuge biologist John Gallegos got word Monday that he, too, will go to Louisiana, where he will lead a rescue team in search of oily birds trapped at sea, in marshes and on beaches.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has more than 495 employees fighting the BP oil spill, according to agency statistics. Most go for two weeks at a time and are not supposed to work more than 16 hours per day - "but that doesn't always happen," Owens said with a chuckle.

Her days typically began at 6 a.m. and ended "about 10 or 11 at night," when she returned to her hotel room, exhausted.

Owens was assigned to the Incident Command Center, located at BP offices in Houma, La. She thought she would be scrubbing oil off pelicans and terns.

But lacking enough personnel, responders asked Owens to coordinate rescue efforts instead - putting crews together with boats, equipment, fuel and resources. She was on the phone almost continuously for 14 straight days.

"I would have cleaned toilets if they had asked me," she said. "There are so many people working so hard down there. You just roll up your sleeves and dig in. It's the only thing we can do."

According to government statistics updated Monday, 724 birds have been collected alive, the vast majority in Louisiana. Another 957 have died. Sea turtles also are bearing a big brunt, with 387 reported dead and another 117 undergoing rehabilitation.

Owens, a wildlife ecologist by training, said one of her worst days in the Gulf was seeing images on TV of the first birds pulled from the water with oil caked to all parts of their bodies.

"There was just silence in the command center," she recalled. "Some people had to leave the room, they were so emotional."

Owens could feel an air of depression among workers and locals, "in part because it's just so senseless. And we have no idea how comprehensive this is. This'll take decades to deal with."

As for herself, Owens said, "I was on the verge of tears every day, and still am."

Working at BP offices and side by side with BP employees was "definitely strange," she said. Because so many Louisiana residents are so mad over the spill, especially at BP, Owens said government staffers were told not to wear their federal credentials away from the command center - and definitely not to wear anything with BP printed on it.

"It's a security issue," she said.

Still, Owens said, most locals support government efforts and are friendly to visiting workers like herself: "They realize we're heart broken too."

Owens said Gulf seafood remains available - she recalled one delicious plate of crawfish etouffee at a restaurant in Houma, "my only night out" - despite ever-expanding closure areas because of pollution.

Back in Virginia, Owens is working with the Coast Guard, state scientists and other authorities to cope with any spilled oil in the Gulf that might push up the Atlantic coast, as some forecasters predict.

Back Bay staffers were asked to identify critical habitats along the Virginia coast, including much of the wildlife refuge, where protections should be readied just in case.

"At least we have time to plan," Owens said. "The Gulf didn't have that luxury."

www.hamptonroads.com