Container ship rams research vessel.

NileQueen · Container ship rams research vessel.

Unexpected hazards of scientific research:

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070806/full/070806-2.html

Researcher killed as Italian ship sinks in minutes.
Emiliano Feresin

Vincenzo di Stefano and Giusy Buscaino, left, were two of the researchers who escaped from the Thetis.

AP Photo/Alessandro Fucarini

A Russian marine biologist was drowned, and an Italian badly hurt, when the research vessel on which they were working was rammed by a cargo ship and sank off the coast of Sicily on 3 August.

The ship, Thetis, was measuring marine biomass around seven kilometres off the island's coast when it was struck by the Heleni, a 55,000-tonne Panamanian container ship. It was morning, and the weather was foggy.

"The scientists on board say it was like an apocalypse when the container ship came at them out of the blue," says Ennio Marsella, head of the CNR Institute for Coastal Marine Environment in Naples, whose scientists were in charge of the project.

The 200-tonne Italian vessel sank in minutes, giving no time to use lifeboats or life jackets. "It was clear we had no way out," says Giusy Buscaino of the CNR, head of the mission, "so I ran towards the stern, then dived and swam away as fast as I could. It was so surreal to look back and find no noise, no vessel, the big cargo vessel going on like nothing happened."

The man killed, bioacoustics expert Petr Mikhejchik, 53, of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fishery and Oceanography in Moscow, was probably trapped working in one of the labs below deck.

Divers recovered his body on Monday. The remaining seven scientists and six crew members survived.

Mikhejchik was "a very reserved person, but kind, and very competent", says Buscaino. They will not abandon their project, she adds. "I never thought it was possible to die doing science — but we all think we should go on because we owe it to Petr."

Warning

The causes of the accident are now being investigated. Port authorities in Sicily had repeatedly warned the Heleni that there were other vessels nearby. The authorities had also issued an order onm 24 July for all ships to keep at least 1,000 metres from the Thetis, which had just left port.

The Thetis, launched in 2000, is equipped for biological, geological and chemical research, and has instruments worth more than 1 million (US$1.4 million). It is one of three marine-research vessels run by the Italian National Research Council (CNR).

Russian and Italian marine biologists have been working together for more than 20 years. "Their competence in marine biology and bathymetry [measurement of seafloor topography] complements ours," says Marsella.

First reports from divers say that the Thetis is badly damaged, but the CNR does not yet know whether it can be replaced. It lies only 40 metres below the surface, and scientists hope to recover some of its instruments.

"We will never get over the loss of life of one of our colleagues," says Marsella.

Andre

A sad story indeed. Researching can be dangerous. Think for instance of those guys sitting on top of the ice sheets, drilling cores. Suppose there is a blizzard, -40 and the heater fails or something. Are there more examples of explorers diseasing due to accidents while doing their job?

NileQueen

I am not sure there are huge storms on the summit of the ice sheet and the interior of Antarctica is quite the polar desert. But Alfred Wegener
died in an ice crevasse trekking across the Greenland ice sheet returning from a rescue mission.

Many divers have died in cenotes, exploring these deep water filled shafts in the karst landscape of Central America. Many cenotes are a result of impact (Chixculub).

billiards

One dead, could've been a lot worse but always sad when people die for no good reason. Working on a boat is actually quite risky, I was thinking about taking a job off-shore recently, they were offering "risk money" as an incentive. A lot of times working out in the field can be dangerous, especially if you are a volcanologist, but even just geological mapping has its risks. I've been mapping and found myself clinging to cliff edges trying to get a sample or a dip-and-strike reading, stepped on a wasps nest once and walked through snake infested shrubbery, luckily I'm still here so it can't be that dangerous, although a decade or so ago some students did actually get lost in the field and they have not been seen since...

Baywax

Sorry to hear about this. My condolences go out to the near friends and family of the poor guys that went through that.

The only hazards of BC Archaeology I've encountered were Trains, Bears, Rivers and Timber Rattlers.

We used to have to row our way across the "mighty Frazer" to get supplies and visit the local Pub (another hazard) at one site up the Frazer. The currents are tricky since you're in a Canyon rowing a little rowboat.

This was the site of settlements that are evidenced to have occured at 2000-4000 bc, 4,000 to 6000 bc and 9,000 to 13,000 bc... on respective terraces carved out by the river during the LGM.

The black bear that visited us at another site (4,000 bc, with about 9 pit house sites and incredible evidences) was persistent enough to get himself shot and eaten by our crew.

We almost always worked along train lines so that was a constant hazard. And some of my sites were in the interior where the Timber Rattler is just waiting for you to p*** him off! Very interesting times.

We were often salvaging archaeological sites of significance before a pipeline or train line or road or developement disturbed the site. This often set up tensions with those industries. And the firstnations people often thought we were there to scr** with their land. But, soon they realized we were basically returning them their history and dignity... then we got incredible dinners of smoked fish and the very same type of BBQ's we were excavating were built for us to filet our fish and what a treat......... research also has its benefits!!

scpg02