Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill on March 24th, 1989, the United States ordered all future oil tankers to have a tugboats out looking for anything the big boats could hit in the future.
They especially wanted the Bligh Reef to be avoided because that was the reef that the big oil tanker had hit that caused a major pollution of the area, that still lasts to this day.
Last week, the tugboat Pathfinder which is all of 136-foot-long with a six man crew and the 100,000 galloons of fuel to keep it going at all times possible, was out scouting for the Alaskan Piper.
The mighty tugboat was especially escorting the Piper around the shallow waters of the infamous Bligh Reef when it suddenly struck the reef, itself.
The tear in the Pathfinder Tugboat created a hole that spilled tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel into the same waters that collected the big oil spill twenty years earlier.
According to the Alaskan Daily Gazette, this is a case of the blind leading the blind.
"I don't get it", stated the reporter in the article. "Someone on that tugboat was watching football, reading girly mags or watching whales instead of their depth chart."
Meanwhile the Coast Guard is investigating the incident.
"According to one of the crew, they had full clearance with room to spare one minute and were aground the next."
Maybe it moved.
