
Black Tide in Brazil - howard941
https://correspondent.afp.com/black-tide-brazil
======
soneca
Total especutlation mode about the origin of this disaster: Venezuela is
suffering oil export sanctions. When that kind of sanction happens it's not
uncommon to transport oil in ships with "rented" flags or no flags to ports of
close countries, so the oil is incorporated to that country's production and
can be sold.

It is a tiny quantity, but generate some money to some people. As everything
clandestine, this transportation doesn't care much about safety and
environmental precautions.

It is tough investigation to make, so maybe we will end only with those
especutlations

~~~
jiofih
You’re right on. Chemical analysis has already confirmed that the oil comes
from Venezuelan fields, and the quantity is smaller than you’d expect, they
are currently investigating a handful of suspect ships, but most likely the
responsible one would have had its comm equipment turned off and hence not
recorded by radar.

~~~
inetknght
Turning communications equipment off is all that's necessary to disappear from
radar?

~~~
zentiggr
Not exactly...

turning off radios would prevent inadvertent/automatic transmissions

disabling transponders would reduce footprint on more modernized port control
radars

not using radar from ownship reduces the chance of being seen

all these together would render the ship's ELINT footprint down to an old
school blob on whatever radar plot

that's about as anonymous as you can get without active countermeasures and
those are VERY obvious

~~~
malandrew
Can you tell us more about the active countermeasures? How do they work and
what makes them very obvious?

~~~
bdamm
That is “stealth”. It’s obvious because it is expensive and secret tech. But
also because if you look at the ship you see a ship, whereas the radar shows
an albatross or something small. Transitions are also notable for radar
operators that are really paying attention. A ship that turns into a goose and
then back into a ship, for example.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
I think you may be mixing up active jamming (which works like shining a
searchlight in someone's eyes--they can't see or track you, but it's very
obvious that there's _someone_ out there) and passive stealth (which tries to
reduce the emissions that the vehicle emits or reflects).

Anyone can make a jammer, but it only helps if you can evade your pursuer
before they get a look at you optically; it's not much use for a lumbering oil
tanker.

As zentiggr says, you can get some degree of passive stealth just by turning
off your own radio/radar, but anything more than that requires a custom-
engineered (and strangely-shaped) hull, propulsion, etc. that takes military-
level money to design and would be extremely obvious in any port. So, again,
not practical for this kind of smuggler.

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myth_drannon
A bit of local context. The Brazilian president accused Green Peace in staging
the accident. Also according to Bolsanaro fish are not dumb and if they see
oil they are going to avoid it (that was a real treasure for memes).

~~~
joelvalleroy
Can they see the oil? I read mobile fish can avoid it, but shellfish and such
can't move that fast if they're already in it.

[https://www.itopf.org/knowledge-resources/documents-
guides/e...](https://www.itopf.org/knowledge-resources/documents-
guides/environmental-effects/effects-in-offshore-and-coastal-waters/)

~~~
dredmorbius
This is the bullshit asymmetry principle at work:

 _The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude
bigger than to produce it._

a/k/a Brandolino's Law.

[https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/01/28/bullshit-a...](https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/01/28/bullshit-
asymmetry-principle/)

The claim is bullshit. We know it's bullshit. Refuting it ties up resources
and conversations.

Flag it as bullshit and move on.

See also burden of proof fallacy:

[https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFalla...](https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/222/Shifting-
of-the-Burden-of-Proof)

------
darksaints
Ross Kemp did an excellent documentary about the rise of piracy in Nigeria
that investigated the motives of the pirates. It actually ended up being about
how the rise of massive pollution from oil companies, enabled by government
corruption, destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Nigerian
villagers who no longer could fish or grow crops.

We can't get off of our oil addiction fast enough.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjGl8CLjKh0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjGl8CLjKh0)

------
llsf
There are still some black sand and naturally formed asphalt crust, in
Brittany's beaches in France... 40 years after
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoco_Cadiz_oil_spill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoco_Cadiz_oil_spill).
It is virtually impossible to clean oil spill. Hopefully this one is not too
big, and won't spoil too much of the shore.

------
pernambucano
It has been removed 4500 Tons of oil from the northeastern beaches already,
according to the Brazilian Navy
([https://www.marinha.mil.br/sites/default/files/nota_gaa_17no...](https://www.marinha.mil.br/sites/default/files/nota_gaa_17nov_.pdf)).

~~~
ricardobeat
Wow. There are roughly ten thousand people involved in the cleanup effort, the
majority from the Navy and the Civil Guard. Huge props to these folks.

------
aszantu
there's no way to just burn it when it dries on the beach?

~~~
simtel20
I suspect that without a well-sealed oven, you just get toxic air and soil if
you burn it.

