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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.

 

Korea’s worst oil spill. A total of six beaches
are now covered with oil. [Reuters pic]


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.

An environmentalist shows a mallard covered in oil
from the spill near Mallipo,
South Korea, Sat, Dec 8. [AP Wire]

 

Crude oil creeps up Mallipo beach, 100 miles southwest of Seoul

 


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.

 

The Hong Kong-registered supertanker Hebei Spirit,
carrying 263,000 tons of crude oil


Coast guards only plugged the holes in the oil tanker on Sunday morning, completely stopping spillage some 48 hours after the disaster.

 

An aerial view of the damaged oil tanker Hebei Spirit.
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

 

 


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