KTVU:

A mile-long sheen of bunker fuel oil drifted from a tanker anchored in the still waters of the San Francisco Bay Friday, triggering an emergency response by the U.S. Coast Guard, authorities said.

A Coast Guard spokesman said the agency got a report at around 8 a.m. reporting the sheen of drifting oil and tarballs streaming from the rear of Panamanian registered tanker Dubai Star that was anchored 2 1/1 miles south of the Bay Bridge.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Melissa Lee said a massive response was under way.

“The leak occurred when they were transferring bunker fuel (from a barge to the tanker),” she said. “We are evaluating the situation and have resources responding. “

Friends of the Earth has a petition calling for the use of bunker fuel to be discontinued:

Bunker fuel is a toxic, asphalt-like substance that is causing air pollution and global warming, harming marine life, and damaging human health and the environment. I join with Friends of the Earth in calling on Congress to require the cruise and shipping industries to end their use of this dirty fuel and transition to cleaner alternatives.

Friends of the Earth and Clean Air Task Force submit the following written testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last year:

Greenwire:

Scientists, sailors, journalists and government officials set sail from San Francisco Bay yesterday to study the planet’s largest known floating garbage dump, about 1,000 miles north of Hawaii.

The goal of the monthlong mission, dubbed Project Kaisei after a 151-foot brigantine ship purchased from Japanese sailors in 1991, is to chart the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, learn about its mysterious vortex of discarded plastic and assess what might be done about it.

Find more videos at EnviroKnow TV.

Mind boggling:

Drowning in plastic: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of France

There are now 46,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre of the world’s oceans, killing a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year. Worse still, there seems to be nothing we can do to clean it up.