Oh, those crazy hot-tubbing, wife-swapping, Al Qaeda-loving Marin County folk. It seems that now they're scalping their own children in an effort to tidy up the remaining Cosco Busan oil spill disaster. Students from Larkspur's Marin Primary and Middle School have willing lopped off locks of hair from their nubile heads, then donating said hair to Eco-Cuts, "a program designed by Marin Primary to help in the cleanup effort triggered by the Nov. 7 oil spill in the bay." Their dirty, dirty child hair will then go to Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based environmental nonprofit that "weaves the hair into mats to soak up oil." According to the Marin Independent:

Human hair is extremely efficient at gathering grease and oil from the air, skin or water, officials noted. Hair is woven into 2-foot-square mats that are used like towels to mop up oil on beaches and in the water.

Not only do the mats pick up the oil, they're bio-degradable: Matter of Trust puts mushroom spores on the oil-covered mats, and as the mushrooms grow, they eat the oil and hair. The mushrooms are then turned into compost, and mulch and used for gardening.

That is probably the most fascinating thing we have heard, ever. Seriously, very interesting. And gross.

Actually, this is a pretty good idea. Not that we would ever donate our priceless locks--for it is filled with too much shine, body, and bounce to be used as some sort of environmental rag--but we suggest that those of you with inferior, excessively long hair check out Matter of Trust. Maybe you can help out with the continuing pollution caused by the Cosco Busan while getting a sharp new makeover?

Altered photo credit: IJ photo/Frankie Frost

Getting the Busan ready for the long journey home. Most of the patching job should be done by now.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit this morning against a host of players involved with the Cosco Busan oil spill. It's nice to know that our top legal eagle is a "former maritime attorney, and appointee to the U.S. Maritime Administration in Washington, D.C., during President Clinton’s Administration." That experience might come in handy before all this is done.

In related news, the Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Bays of San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun alleges the pilot aboard the Busan ordered "full speed" shortly before the allision when visibility was about a tenth of a mile. Of course, that's just the "accusation" and it's way early to have all the info needed to apportion blame among the players involved. Respected commenter and California Insider Daniel Weintraub wonders why legislators have said relatively little about the one person involved who was the most responsible for what happened: the pilot. [Free registration, by the way] But at least one Assemblymember has spoken out to say that he thinks Captain Cota is being "set up.". Interesting.

Also, word comes from gCaptain about a new animation of the path of the Busan.

And speaking of petroluem oozing out where it doesn't belong, check out some South Koreans dealing with an Exxon Valdez caliber oil spill here Now, that's an oil spill. Things could have been much worse for us. Are we ready for the next major spill?

More on our new lawsuit after the jump.

Audet & Partners, LLP filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of commercial fishers and crab-based (?) businesses in San Francisco on November 20. Today on their site they claim the following, "Breaking News: Cosco Busan Vessel Arrested." Which? Okay then. We have yet to see footage of the vessel getting cuffed by the fuzz with its shirt off, and we can't imagine it heard its Miranda rights being read, but seeing as how we're prone to hyperbole, we'll go with their verb choice. Anyway, you can read more about it here on the law firm's disgustingly .pdf-happy site.

Ultimately, it seems that this is one of two reasons why the ship has yet to leave the Bay. (The first being that the Coast Guard isn't sure if the Busan can safely navigate out of San Francisco waters.) We've been checking BoatingSF for the last few days, wondering why the Cosco has been docked near China Basin for the last couple of weeks. And now we know. So...there you go.

Cosco Busan oil spill workers checked out a makeshift photo shoot in front of one of San Francisco's closed beaches last week. Flickr's Messtiza holds out hope that it was for a "keep the bay clean and sexy" project, but that certainly seems unlikely. See if you can figure things out here.

Why is it that the single-hulled 980-something-foot-long Exxon Valdez is effectively banned by the government from hauling petroleum from southern Alaska to the west coast, while the very similar single-hulled, 980-something-foot-long S/R Long Beach is still at work?

And what do Cosco and Hanjin and the others have to say? And of all the people with a role to play in this medium-sized tragedy, who's winning the straight shooter award (so far)? Find out after the jump.

But, and we hate to admit it, they sure do look pretty together. (The image above has been set as our desktop background!) But as attractive as oil and water looks on rain-soaked driveways and in Carmel-y art pieces, it's not worth it when it's in our Bay. It tends to cause inexcusable damage. (Where, like, fish and mermaids and stuff totally die, you know.) Take, for example, this morning's container ship that rammed into the Bay Bridge.

Rob Roberts, a lieutenant with the state Department of Fish and Game, claims that the a total of 140 gallons of fuel spilled from today's ship/Bay Bridge smash. It will take about a month to clean up, and by midday today, some fuel had already reached Pier One [under the Embarcadero] in San Francisco. Read more about it here.

More pictures of the oil spillage after the jump.


image credit: Bob Brigham