South Korea’s largest oil spill in history
I was watching StarNews Asia and came across this devastating news.
MALLIPO BEACH, South Korea – The coastline of the once pristine Taean County in South Chungcheong Province has been covered in a thick coat of oil following a massive leak after the supertanker Hubei Spirit collided with a crane-carrying barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries on Friday.
The spill, the largest in South Korea’s history, has damaged 37% of oyster, clam and abalone farms in the country. In a day or two, all fishing grounds in the area will be affected. With damage escalating to enormous proportions, Taean has been declared a disaster area.
from the spill near Mallipo, South Korea, Sat, Dec 8. [AP Wire]
HOW IT HAPPENED
On Friday morning (7 Dec), crane-carrying barge of Samsung Heavy Industries collided with the Hong Kong supertanker Hebei Spirit. The tanker was anchored 10km northwest of Mallipo, South Chungcheong Province. The crane punctured three holds in the ship’s portside containers, leading to the leak of about 10,500 tons of crude oil into the waters.
Coast guards only plugged the holes in the oil tanker on Sunday morning, completely stopping spillage some 48 hours after the disaster.
The tanker was at anchor off South Korea’s
western coast when it was hit on 07 Dec, 2007.
Taean has been declared a disaster area
Related post:
South Korea’s oil spill devastation and clean up
Surf to these sites for more news on South Korea’s largest oil spill:
- Oil Spill Devastates Korean Coast (Digital Chosunilbo)
- South Korea declares slick ‘disaster’ (BBC)
- South Korea oil spill spreads (Al Jazeera)
- South Koreans struggle to clean up ‘sea of oil’ (msnbc)
wa.. teruk. horrible HSE incident