Molasses spill in Hawaii

Yeah its pretty bad out there... I actually have a friend that is in HA as a Reef Habiate Monitoriing Tech ...

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This is terrible. Screw the possibility of price increases. The oceans, and reefs are in enough trouble without having chit like this happen. Incidences like this only add to it. It's a shame.
 
I think it was completely contained in the bay. I was amazed at how many fish were actually affected. It was like 1200 or 1500 gallons of molasses I think. Really sort of shows how many fish there actually are around there. It's also interesting that a pure carbon source would be that deadly. I'm wondering if there was more than molasses going on there, though HI makes a LOT of that.
 
Herbie said:
I think it was completely contained in the bay. I was amazed at how many fish were actually affected. It was like 1200 or 1500 gallons of molasses I think. Really sort of shows how many fish there actually are around there. It's also interesting that a pure carbon source would be that deadly. I'm wondering if there was more than molasses going on there, though HI makes a LOT of that.
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from what i read its so thick its suffocating them not poisoning them
 
Also the water is so calm, that its not being 'flushed' - the issue is they're seeing these same effects 3+ milies from where it happened - its only a matter of time until it continues to 'leak' farther out to sea :/
 
The ocean can/will dilute anything (eventually) keep in mind there are active lava flows and poisonous gasses also pumping into the water all over HI. It's terrible because it was preventable, but mother nature can handle it.

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Herbie said:
I think it was completely contained in the bay. I was amazed at how many fish were actually affected. It was like 1200 or 1500 gallons of molasses I think. Really sort of shows how many fish there actually are around there. It's also interesting that a pure carbon source would be that deadly. I'm wondering if there was more than molasses going on there, though HI makes a LOT of that.
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Nate, the article says that it was actually 1/4 Million Gallons, no small degree of molasses... Poor fish. At least it was in the harbor versus the open reef, though.
 
Funlad3 said:
Nate, the article says that it was actually 1/4 Million Gallons, no small degree of molasses... Poor fish. At least it was in the harbor versus the open reef, though.
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that is much more than I heard initially (curse you CNN) but I think it might have been less deadly in the open ocean. Faster dilution and the fish could swim down. (It's like 3000 feet deep pretty much right off shore. I'll let you know the correct answer once I graduate from Woodshole.
 
Herbie said:
that is much more than I heard initially (curse you CNN) but I think it might have been less deadly in the open ocean. Faster dilution and the fish could swim down. (It's like 3000 feet deep pretty much right off shore. I'll let you know the correct answer once I graduate from Woodshole.
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yeah nevermind. that's really bad. I just read a bunch more about the long term impacts. it's more like a sinking oil spill than anything else.
 
it's not oil, it's a sugar, that with water will dissolve out with more volume. Simple experiment, take 30 ml of molasses, and 30 ml of motor oil, throw both in a gallon of water and shake. Then see what the result is. Yes, a flood of molasses in a confined area will decrease oxygen available, but in the open sea, it would be negligent due to solubility of molasses in water itself. It was a spill in a confined area, it's not going to spread. sugar dissolves in water, oil dissipates, big difference.
 
gomery12 said:
it's not oil, it's a sugar, that with water will dissolve out with more volume. Simple experiment, take 30 ml of molasses, and 30 ml of motor oil, throw both in a gallon of water and shake. Then see what the result is. Yes, a flood of molasses in a confined area will decrease oxygen available, but in the open sea, it would be negligent due to solubility of molasses in water itself. It was a spill in a confined area, it's not going to spread. sugar dissolves in water, oil dissipates, big difference.
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ah but is is burned and processed sugar that is high in carbon. add a little more heat, pressure (and millions of years) and you've basically got oil. It will definitely disolve over time, but it is blanketing the sea floor in the entire bay and currently up to three miles out to sea. and being so dense the saltwater is going to float on top of it instead of dissolving it efficiently. I still say mother nature always recovers, but that bay is going to be a wasteland for years because it is really low flow anyway. Locally sad, not globally significant. Probably will impact fish collection further in HI though. They've already made a run at shutting down collection if I remember correctly. Those dead fish pictures could very well hit us in the pocketbook somehow and there is no doubt the pure loss of live is just hard to see. FWIW, CNN did report 1500 gallons when I first heard about this. That much diesel probably goes into that bay in a month. 233,000 gallons is a slightly different story.

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