On Friday, a crane barge collided with a fully loaded tanker off the coast of Taean, after one of the steel wires connecting it to one of the tugs snapped, causing the worst oil spill in the history of the ROK.
After an 11,800-ton barge owned by Samsung collided with a 146,000-ton Hong Kong-registered Hebei Spirit, Friday, puncturing hull, which the oil leak, the ecologically pristine coastline has become a deathtrap for wildlife, with waves of crude oil washing ashore.
About 30 beaches in the Taean area were covered by the slick, according to maritime police.
Natural Treasure No. 431, Shinduri Dune, was saturated and mallard ducks and other sea life are being found suffocated by the oil.
More than half of the 544 oyster and abalone farms in the area have reportedly lost all their stock due to the breakdown of the marine eco system, police said.
It’s turning out to be a bad year, in regards to PR, for Samsung. First one of its former lawyers blows the whistle on some of its shady activities and now one of its barges causes what could be the worst environmental disaster in the history of the ROK.
There’s a huge cleanup in progress, but so far prognosis is grim, to say the least.
About 6,650 soldiers and police with 90 vessels and six helicopters have been working to contain about 10,500 tons of oil, but could not prevent it from reaching coastal areas, police said.
And what’s a Korean ecological disaster without government incompetence.
The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries initially said the leaked oil would quickly freeze in the cold winter temperatures, and since the accident took place about 10 kilometers from the shore, the environmental damage would not be as large as back in 1995, when the Sea Prince spilled 5,000 tons of crude and fuel oil on the seashore of Yeosu in South Jeolla Province.
However, due to rather warm weather, an unforeseeable wind direction and high waves, the spill expanded and is more than 33 kilometers long, the police said.
The government has been under fire for having limited measures to combat the leak in the first place, which has resulted in even greater damage.
The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry and police admitted to having not provided sufficient amount of oil absorbent material to fishermen and residents as well as not having paid enough attention to the wind direction.
Police investigation on this matter is concentrating on why the barge and the tugs pulling it left its planned route 80 minutes before the collision. There also seems to be a difference in opinion between the government and Samsung on whether government maritime controllers sufficiently warned the crew of the tugs and the barge that there was a fully loaded tanker nearby.
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“There also seems to be a difference in opinion between the government and Samsung on whether government maritime controllers sufficiently warned the crew of the tugs and the barge that there was a fully loaded tanker nearby.”
Whatever. Warning or not, they left their planned route and consequently struck the tanker.
Deep condolences for all residents and visitors of the Taean-haean region, all human and otherwise…
Safety of oil shipments continues to be a global crisis — when will we globally crack down with enforcing higher standards for tanker-ships? — how many spills will it take?
what kinda higher standards do you have in mind? Is there a crash-free ship design possible?
Hmm… Must be one of those crises like the “GI Crime Wave” or perhaps the “8-Track Tape Shortage”. It seems our friend Dave Mason is trapped in the world of anti-establishment preconceptions formed during his drug-addled hippie youth. Oil is baaad.
Thanks to innovations like double-hulled tankers and particularly GPS, maritime oil spills, both in terms of total quantity of discharge and of number of occurrences, have declined precipitously — especially since the 1970s, but even after the 1990s. If you don’t take my word for it — and you shouldn’t — take a look at the reports of the International Tanker Owners’ Pollution Federation, sponsored by the protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance clubs which have to pay for oil spills.
While I recommend his books and bet he’d be a heck of a tour guide for a historical tour, I wouldn’t recommend taking policy advice from Dave since it seems to be rooted in feelings rather than fact.
“8-Track Tape Shortage”.
CCR and Lynyrd Skynyrd fans have yet to recover from that one.
Hmmm, at 5:50 am the sun is just starting to pop up. Oil tankers are huge ships than can easily been seen from far distances by the naked eye. I wonder if the barge pilot was given a sobriety test (an IQ test would be good too).
Down with Samsung. Long live Japanese electronics
So is the government going to make Samsung pay for this? Maybe I just answered my own question, since Samsung has made payoffs to the government, Samsung won’t need to and unfortunately it’s the people of those town who will end up being/are screwed.
I saw that the candidates wasted no time in getting out there ‘help’ clean up.
The tanker was at anchor. Just how does a couple of tugboats pull a barge into a resting oil tanker!? A line broke and two tugs can not get in front and push the barge!?
These are excuses that do not make sense.
Who needs oil? I don’t need oil. Do you need oil? I also don’t need
gas. Do you need gas?
…like a yippy little chihuahua…
Hey, i have been disparaged, and must respond…
> mateomiguel
> Is there a crash-free ship design possible?
No, but there are certainly new ship designs that leak less oil in case of a crash, such as Brendan mentions just below (double hulls and other innovations) — that are sometimes being used but not yet sufficiently required or enforced.
> Brendon, apparently on lucrative Retainer from oil-shipping interests:
> maritime oil spills, both in terms of total quantity of discharge
> and of number of occurrences, have declined precipitously —
You are correct that they have declined, of course; you may be satisfied with the “precipitous” rate of decline but i and the sea-birds / marine-farmers / beachgoers of Taean think that it’s not yet enough, not nearly — still happening way too often, when it has become increasingly preventable. Too high of an environmental price to pay for saving a few bucks in the oil trade.
> Hmm… Must be one of those crises like the “GI Crime Wave”
> or perhaps the “8-Track Tape Shortage”.
Yah yah, ya dyspeptic over-urbanized armchair-conservative — go down and tell that to the people trying to scoop up the latest stinky-black-gunk horror on our beautiful West Coast.
> It seems our friend Dave Mason is trapped in the world of anti-
> establishment preconceptions formed during his drug-addled hippie youth.
And my youth was different from any other over-40 poster on this blog just HOW??
There ain’t nuthin’ anti-establishment about demanding better safety standards set and enforced on international oil shipping. Fairly pro-establishment, compared to the alternatives, i rather would think.
> Oil is baaad.
Not even remotely implied by my post. The way that the international oil business has been conducted in recent times is largely reprehensible, and we do know who is responsible for that — but the resource material itself is innocent. Switching towards renewable sources of energy is a good idea right now, tho, and even your oil-biz hero GW Bush has admitted so.
> While I recommend his books and bet he’d be a heck of a tour
> guide for a historical tour,
While most of your post is wrong-headed, at least this statement is quite correct, thank-you
> I wouldn’t recommend taking policy advice from Dave
Fortunately you are in the minority in this, among the people who matter — i do try to limit my policy recommendations to Korean Tourism matters, but this oil spill does directly affect the future of our tourism business, and therefore is well within my sphere!
Now would be a good time for anyone
with a bit of free time to go and help
scoop up a few buckets of crude. No questions
asked.
Crude carriers take about 3 years to build, and the shipyards that can build them have 3-year backlogs. Patience.
Those new and improved double-hulled ones you’ve been talking about, I mean.
The Korean government should have asked for Japanese help. The Japanese coast guard is better equipped, trained and would be most happy to help their neighbors.
Sanshinseon, I am aware of your altruism and care
for our environment as you do. I am in the process of getting
people together to help in the clean up. Please e-mail
me at sanha55@hotmail.com. I’ll provide details if you
have time. I worked for an oil spill outfit called
“Cleanwater”. It was one of the most rewarding jobs
I’ve ever had. It will be labor intensive. I think those
who care can help with this mess.
OK Fred, will do.
Thanks, Linkd.
“Down with Samsung. Long live Japanese electronics”
I hope my wife finally listens when I tell her that we need to add LG Electronics to our portfolio.
Dave, you haven’t been disparaged; you’ve been teased. I save disparagement for goons. You’re a good guy.
I have experience in shipping practice. But, due to the distressing and inexorable march of improvements in things like hull design, navigational aids, and less drinking on duty, if you’re a calamity-based firm the shipping practice area is a declining one. In fact, it’s a dog. So that’s how I know your perception of “crisis” in oil transport is a misapprehension.
It’s not great for the birds who get oiled, but to declare a declining base of accidents a “crisis” is a bit muddled. Apparently you share with Korean nationalists the same unrealistic and intolerant “even one is too many” attitude. So no, I wouldn’t let you make policy based on this accident. Your input and suggestions for tourism promotion are, I’m sure, terrific — too bad nobody over there will listen, though. Sparkling!
All righty then, O cantankerous one, may we agree that oil transport was a “crisis” for decades, has now become noticably less of one, but still has an urgent bit of improvement to make…?
Like with murder, rape, war and hagwan-owner contract-violations, even one beach-befouling oil-spill is indeed too many, and tho we know the ideal of zero will never be reached (and should remain humble in the face of that) it behooves us to minimize them by acting as if zero were indeed our goal. No?
> Your input and suggestions for tourism promotion are, I’m sure,
> terrific — too bad nobody over there will listen, though.
Thanks for rubbing it in, dude ;-(
I must once again publicly declare in my own defense that although i was deeply involved in generating the excellent “Dynamic Korea”, i had nothing at all to do with “Korean Sparkling!”…
Brendon, how many Seabees have sailed upon
oil tankers 3-5 football fields or longer?
From what I’ve seen on TV, Mallipo Beach and the surrounding areas have been trashed really badly. I realize the the west coast around Taean isn’t quite as “pristine” as CNN has been suggesting in their reports, but it was a great place to get away for the weekend, especially off-season. Obviously, this will have tragic implications for wildlife, and the fishing and tourism industries are going to suffer terribly.
I can appreciate the fact that there are fewer spills of this nature than in the past, plus that there have been many spills that dumped many more tons of crude into the sea, but that probably doesn’t matter a lot to local residents at the moment.
Perhaps this oil was destined to be part of the 100 zillion tons of fuel oil about to be sent to the Norks for signing that worthless pact they’re about to break.
As globalvillageidiot observes, the coastline thereabouts aint quite as pristine as the media suggests. I often camp at Mongsanpo, and frequently walk the coastline; like other coastal areas in Korea there are great quantities of plastic jetsam and flotsam, and not a few abandoned fishing nets. Notwithstanding the scenic beauty, the waters are not sparkling, but usually opaque. When - if ever - is Korea going to get real about environmental pollution?
Note that while those particular waters are indeed more polluted than they ought to be, the reason that they are somewhat opaque has more to do with the dust/sand from the hinterlands of China that they are saturated with, and have always been (that’s why it’s called the Yellow Sea).
Actually, hydrodynamicics, currents, and depth have much
more to do with clarity and visibility than most people
will ever know. Dive deep, live long.
ic.(delete)
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