Scarecrow One Shot to the rescue of the MSC Napoli
Wednesday 01 August 2007
The event prompted help from both UK and French coastguard agencies and it was decided to tow the vessel into the relatively calm waters of Lyme Bay off Devon’s coast to asses the problem with a view to finally taking the vessel to Portland.
However, on beaching the Napoli it became clear that a tear in the hull was beyond repair and moving the ship any further was out of the question.With the 2,300 containers onboard gradually being washed overboard and onto the beach, the subsequent activity by locals, opening beached containers and in some cases ‘liberating’ brand new BMW motorcycles amongst other items of cargo, assured the Napoli of interest from the world’s media, and subsequently from maritime and police authorities.
The last months have been spent it removing the cargo and fuel oils from the ship in preparation for breaking up the remains and removal from this well known beauty spot.In July, the vessel was split in two, and earlier this August the bow section was towed to Belfast’s Harland and Wolff shipyard, where it will be deconstructed with a view to recycling the materials. Meanwhile, the stern section, including the accommodation block, has been stabilised whilst tenders for its disposal are considered.
There are many problems still posed by the remaining section, but one easily remedied is the attraction of the wreck to seabirds. Situated just off the cliffs of Branscombe Bay, the ship is attracting a great deal of bird activity with resultant soiling of all open areas presenting a threat to workers recovering the vessel. Apart from the danger of slippery surfaces which require constant cleaning to make safe, the health hazards of heavy concentrations of bird droppings are well documented, and the droppings are also in danger of corroding many recoverable materials.
So the companies involved in the recovery have called in Scarecrow Bio-acoustic Systems, a British company which specialises in the management of bird problems around the world.Scarecrow’s expertise is more usually employed in the world’s airports where the danger of a bird strike on aircraft at landing or take off is catastrophic. Their system works by broadcasting the specific distress call of the species in question in a controlled and managed environment, and it is so effective that most of the world’s major airports now employ Scarecrow products.
Recently, this success has led to further uses in protecting buildings, city centres and now, increasingly, maritime environments.The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) use Scarecrow systems to protect their headquarters buildings at Poole in Dorset as well as their rescue craft at Eastbourne’s Sovereign Harbour. Marinas are increasingly employing Scarecrow’s products to control bird damage to leisure craft, and now interest is growing in the commercial shipping sector as health and safety concerns are becoming a legal responsibility.And so with the Napoli.
Scarecrow consultants assessed the problem and suggested the installation of their ‘One Shot’ package, an innocuous box that can be mounted almost anywhere, feeding signals on a pre-planned basis to strategically mounted speakers, thus transmitting regular distress calls and hence discouraging birds from the vicinity. The calls are at a natural level and are not noticeable to humans as being from a ‘non-natural’ source, but the effect is to make the area appear ‘unsafe’ to birds due to what they perceive as some unseen predator.
The system may at first seem rather low-tech in this modern age, but the research into developing the correct calls and the electronics required to run the system is, in fact, extremely cutting-edge. Most importantly, it works. Whatever other problems there may still be with the Napoli, the bird problem has been resolved.