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Random Quote: You touched the leader its a catch! (as I cry from the bridge)
Guys, I was one of the boats at the rig. One of the guys on my boat actually took the picture with his smartpohne. I can assure you that it's 100% REAL.
.. There was another boat at the rig (Covin) we pulled up next to them and they told us about the explosion, which explains the black smoke we saw running towards the rig.
Wher is the other boat yo uspeak of in the picture?
Quote:
I don't known the rules and regs for oil platforms, but would assume that if this was a scheduled event then it was not handled properly. If it was an emergency situation then I understand completely.
There's no one on that platform if standard regulations were followed. This is an unmanned platform. If someone comes on a crew boat, the crew boat must remain for safety reasons. There's no chopper on the deck..... If there was an explosion with black smoke, I for the life of me can't picture where black smoke would come from? The Natural gas powered machines on the deck?
Why is there only snapper floating. I can almost guarantee that any rig with this many snapper would be loaded with spade fish. Why are none of them floating? And why are the snapper floating after an "exposion"
rude...i'm guessing that the platform in the picture was in the "background", ie: it is not the rig that sent down the explosive. again, just a guess...
i have not seen or read anything here that shows evidence that the story is a fake. one dude just chimes in with "PHOTOSHOP!", and gives no reason or evidence at all for it.
cgrand: The story is no BS and the pic is real. Rolly99 called me about the event after he returned from his trip and emailed me the pic after it was downloaded from the phone. (Monday morning) I have known Rolly99 all of my life (literally since age 3) and he is just a normal fisherman who stumbled upon an event and took a pic of what was to be seen. Needless to say, it was not an event one sees everyday.
Rude: Please allow me to apologize for Rolly99 not having his Nikon Digital 9000 Z71 FX4 limited edition camera with super duper zoom lens at the ready for the pic for your expert verification of individual fish. (yes, you can infer sarcasm) He simply took a few pics and ran off in search of more fish. Your response infers a bit of defense of the rig/workers. Rolly is not attacking the rig guys, it was simply a witnessed event. I can't explain the smoke Rolly saw either and I have been fishing all my life out there, but neither have I ever seen an explosion at a rig nor am I a rig/explosive/diver/roughneck worker either. He says he saw smoke, he has no reason to make it up.
I agree with the post about the damage done by commercial boats....Just as this rig might be a bit short on fish population for a little while, who has not pulled up to a rig or wreck after a commercial boat and caught much of anything?
__________________ 2002 Pursuit 2470 - sold
2011 2170 Blazer Bay
Last edited by fishindave9; 06-11-2009 at 06:59 PM.
Reason: typo
I'm not accusing anyone of photoshopping anything, lieing about the incident, nor defending oilfield workers. I'm just calling the sequence of events and evidence that backs them up (this picture) very extraordinary at best. If a member of THT took the photo and honestly beleives the sequence of events then I have no reason to doubt that. But, what I do doubt is the true sequence of possible events as they really happened. I just see several things out of place that should support the events that were percieved to take place, ie a wireline unit on the deck which is the only way anyone would deploy exposives on a platform, a standby crew boat that is required to be within the vacinity when exposives are deployed, and the list goes on......
So, to rephrase, I appoligize if the comments sounded derogatory to anyone here., They were not meant to be. The sequence of events is definitely in question though IMO.
So, what really happened? A commercial boat left 15 minutes before culling as he left? The water was somehow charged electrically (ol' phone box trick)? Or explosives thrown over the side by a rig worker? Hard to beleive any of those.......
cgrand: The story is no BS and the pic is real. Rolly99 called me about the event after he returned from his trip and emailed me the pic after it was downloaded from the phone. (Monday morning) I have known Rolly99 all of my life (literally since age 3) and he is just a normal fisherman who stumbled upon an event and took a pic of what was to be seen. Needless to say, it was not an event one sees everyday.
Rude: Please allow me to apologize for Rolly99 not having his Nikon Digital 9000 Z71 FX4 limited edition camera with super duper zoom lens at the ready for the pic for your expert verification of individual fish. (yes, you can infer sarcasm) He simply took a few pics and ran off in search of more fish. Your response infers a bit of defense of the rig/workers. Rolly is not attacking the rig guys, it was simply a witnessed event. I can't explain the smoke Rolly saw either and I have been fishing all my life out there, but neither have I ever seen an explosion at a rig nor am I a rig/explosive/diver/roughneck worker either. He says he saw smoke, he has no reason to make it up.
I agree with the post about the damage done by commercial boats....Just as this rig might be a bit short on fish population for a little while, who has not pulled up to a rig or wreck after a commercial boat and caught much of anything?
I'll let Rolly comment about the culling theory....I can't say that in the same scenario that I would have passed on the fish he left floating around for the sharks to eat, therefore, cullying theory is highly suspect. Extraordinary is exactly what this scenario is, in my opinion. Just by chance, a boat or two was there to see the results.
Rolly is a longtime THT lurker and 1st time poster.....damn, I should have known,,damn Rolly, why did you have to pick this topic as your first post???... and lifetime friend of mine. We both have been fishing since our 1st stepswere taken and in the 25+ years I have been fishing south of the barrier islands, I have never seen an event such as this. (jets broke sound barrier while fishing MP 120 when I was about 10 years old and yes, that shook the boat, I thought the boat blew up, and I had no idea what "breaking the sound barrier" meant, I would have sworn someone blew up something, etc, all while my dad laughed) but I didn't see any fish kill.
If you take the first post on rodngun into perspective (Covin, post only, no pic), the questions are what happened and why. I am curious as to what happened on the rig. Closing up the hole??? Restarting the well??? I have no idea about that kind of work. But, to simplify the story, 1st boat is allegedly told to move back 500 feet from the rig (by crewboat or rig??) , boom, 1 minute later fish floating. boat 2 running southbound in area sees smoke, runs up to rig to see fish floating and takes a pic, confers with boat 1. Boat 2 is able to verify fishkill for specific reasons only known to either the rig workers, if present or boat 1.
Apparently, explosives are used on rigs for whatever necessary reason lending some degree of cridibility to boat #1 story. Was boat 1 dynamite fishing???? pretty doubtful as well, but certainly possible. Snapper fishing aint that hard this year, but I've seen stranger things. I don't know if a guy droping a stick of dynamite (or other explosive) would produce smoke. Rolly can also chime in on any presence of a crew boat in the area and the rig in question in the photo as I have no knowledge of those two factors.
__________________ 2002 Pursuit 2470 - sold
2011 2170 Blazer Bay
I will side with RUDE on the steps and regulations that need to take place before an explosive charge is detonated underwater on a platform. There are rules/regulations for days on how one needs to proceed and they are always detonated inside of some form of casing. About the only way... and this could be a possiblility. Seismic work could have been going on in the near vecinity. We see this all the time around oil fields that are being produced/explored. A boat will pass with a chaser boat setting off charges to get a "view" of the layers of sediment on the bottom. If such a boat passed by setting one of these charges off, that could have been a result!
So, Maybe the boom was a siezmic shot. Definitely plausable. The seizmic shot(s) is done with wireline VSP tools at depth (normally 8000+ ft in the GOM where these types of platforms are). Now, the VSP "guns" would also warrant the "back up 500 ft" rule. But, not the black smoke as the "shot" is just compressed air. It is loud as hell though. Wonder if compressed air could cause the snapper to float? This VSP operation IS fairly common, so makes me thinks... hmmmmmmm
So, maybe Rolly can verify the pics were/were not of the rig where the explotion and smoke came from. Again, no wireline unit on the platform in the pic, so definitely not there.
Intially, let me state that I did not start the post on this site or RNG. I frequent this site as well as RNG and saw that a post was made by the other boat that was at the rig last Sat. I simply posted a picture to show what happened. Do I know exactly what happened, no...
Once again, we were running to the rig and saw black smoke come from the southwest corner. We got up to the rig and saw all the dead fish. On the surface we saw pretty much every type of gulf snapper, spadefish, small grouper, and AJ's, etc (sorry that I didn't actually take inventory)... Pulled up the the south side of the rig next to the other boat and asked them what happened. They told me that they were told to back off the rig then, a few minutes later felt an explosion, then a minute after that the fish came up. I have no reason to believe that they weren't telling the truth, afterall they started the first post on RNG.
There was no crew boat on the rig... There was two guys up on the platform that appeared to be working with an expedited pace, doing something....
I thought this website was for fisherman posting stories about their catch and about unique situations they encountered while fishing the GOM. I couldn't give a rats a$$ about the post insinuating that the pictures are photoshopped or that the story is fake. I have nothing to prove, just sharing information.
And my apoligies if I ruffled any feathers. It was not intended I promise.
Now, I hope this actually causes a wave of action in the way oil companies are allowed to deal with abondonment processes. I can almost guarantee the oil company would have much rather (financially) be allowed to plug and abondon the well (cement and other safety techniques), cut the well head and platform legs at a regulated depth below surface with underwater welders, and leave the structure as a reef. Instead, the enviro nuts are requiring the "return to original" policies. As a fisherman, I'd love for the feds to allow the reef to be left in place for natures sake. That would benefit the endagered red snapper and prevent unfortunate events like this from occuring.
or at least post a time and date so we can have a fleet ready to pic up all the 30 lb snapper that float up...kidding.
I am definitely in favor of leaving 10 to 15 feet of structure on the bottom in a rig removal process. Cut the sucker, don't blow it up and kill all our endangered red snaps.
__________________ 2002 Pursuit 2470 - sold
2011 2170 Blazer Bay
Excellent. I love that show. 
