Philippine coast guard says oil leaking from sunken tanker
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The Philippines is racing to prevent an environmental catastrophe in Manila Bay.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Manila - Some of the 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil inside a sunken Philippine tanker has started to leak into Manila Bay, the coast guard said on July 27, calling for a suspension of fishing in the waterway.
The MT Terra Nova sank in bad weather in the busy waterway early on July 25, killing one crew member and leaving the country potentially facing its worst oil spill disaster.
The oil slick has more than tripled in size from July 25 and is now estimated to stretch between 12km and 14km across the bay, which thousands of fishermen and tourism operators rely on for their livelihoods.
Divers inspected the hull of the vessel on July 27 and saw a “minimal leak” from the valves, coast guard spokesman Armando Balilo said, adding it was “not alarming yet”.
“It’s just a small volume flowing out,” Rear-Admiral Balilo said.
“We’re hoping that tomorrow we will be able to start siphoning the oil from the motor tanker.”
The coast guard has warned that if the entire cargo leaked it would be an “environmental catastrophe”.
It has previously said the oil leaking from the tanker appeared to be the diesel fuel used to power the vessel, which is resting on the sea floor under 34m of water.
Oil containment booms have been deployed for what Rear-Adm Balilo earlier described as “the worst-case scenario” of the cargo leaking out.
The vessel sank nearly 7km from its origin in the port of Limay west of Manila. It was attempting to return to port after running into bad weather.
A boy holding sand washed ashore with an oily substance along the Limao coastline in the Philippines.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
The incident occurred as heavy rain, fuelled by Typhoon Gaemi and the seasonal monsoon, lashed Manila and surrounding regions
The state weather service said the monsoon had weakened by late July 26, giving the authorities a window of relative calm at sea to recover the cargo.
The coast guard estimates the extraction would take at least seven days.
The Philippines has struggled to contain serious oil spills in the past.
It took months to clean up after a tanker carrying 800,000 litres of industrial fuel oil sank
Another tanker sank off the central island of Guimaras in 2006, spilling tens of thousands of gallons of oil that destroyed a marine reserve, ruined local fishing grounds and covered stretches of coastline in black sludge. AFP
