Oil Blankets Western Coastline

A fisherman examines oysters Monday at his farm in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, which was contaminated by the nation’s largest oil spill.

/ Korea Times Photo by Park Seo-gang

By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

Sea farms and fishing areas on the country's western coast have been turned into a ``sea of oil'' following the Friday leakage of oil from a tanker in seas off Taean, South Chungcheong Province, which is believed one of the world's most devastating sea pollution cases involving oil.

Maritime officials say about 5 percent of the oil has been collected, and about 9,000 soldiers, police, officials and volunteers were struggling to clean up the polluted area, Monday, the fourth day of operations.

The amount of oil spilled _ 10,500 tons _ is more than double the 5,000 tons that leaked from the Sea Prince into seas off Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, Korea's worst previous oil spill in 1995.

It is also about 28 percent of the 37,000 tons leaked from the Exxon Valdez into Alasaka's Prince William Sound in 1989, one of the world's worst sea pollutions by oil. The Alaska cleanup operation cost some $2.5 billion, and the total cost reached $9.5 billion including compensation.

The oil, spilled from the Hong Kong-registered tanker Hebei Spirit after a Samsung-owned barge collided with it, has spread 40 kilometers to the northeast and 50 kilometers to the southeast from the collision spot, 10 kilometers off Taean, which the government has designated as a special disaster area.

The total length of oil-contaminated shores in the heavily indented coastline has reached 150 kilometers, according to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

The oil began to wash into the mouth of Garorim Bay, the province's biggest fish farming area, about 20 kilometers northeast of Taean. It is feared the slick may spread further north as far as Gyeonggi Province.

The slick has already contaminated 450 oyster and abalone farms, destroying all their stock. The provincial government expects the size of the damaged area could reach 1,355 square kilometers.

The authorities are trying to remove the oil, but the amount is beyond their capacity, and they have collected only 5 percent of the total oil so far. Seoul will accept a U.S. offer to help the clean-up operation, according to the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry.

Having been declared a disaster area, the region and its people will be eligible for various government subsidies and compensation, according to Seoul officials.

The government said the total haul of fish from Taean County in 2005 was 30,000 tons, valued at 120 billion won.

Other recent major oil spills includes those of the tankers Prestige and Erika. Prestige, which was carrying 77,000 tons of oil, broke in two off Galicia in Spain in November 2002, and spilled an unknown but substantial quantity of its cargo, according to the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund. In December 1999, Erika also broke in two off Brittany, France, and leaked 19,800 tons of oil.

The Korea Coast Guard Service plans to transfer the oil remaining in the Hebei Spirit to other tankers and transfer the vessel to Hyundai Oilbank's plant in Daesan, South Chungcheong Province, where the ship was originally heading.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr

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