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Large Oil Spill Occurs in Indian Ocean    [

    Philippines Battles Major Oil Spill, Fishermen Suffer
    By Dolly Aglay
    Reuters

    Wednesday 16 August 2006

    LaPaz, Philippines - Rescue workers battled on Wednesday to stop a huge oil spill from further polluting the central Philippine coastline as fishermen, smeared in the foul-smelling sludge, returned to shore with empty nets.

    "This is a major disaster. The natural marine sanctuary is destroyed. Tourism is greatly affected," Geary Barias, police director in the western Visayas region, told Reuters.

    Fishing grounds, dive spots and a national marine reserve were contaminated and the livelihood of thousands of people threatened after a tanker carrying 2 million litres of bunker fuel sank off the coast of central Guimaras island on Friday.

    The provincial government has declared the tropical resort island a disaster zone and officials have warned that the spill, the largest to afflict the Southeast Asian country, could take three years to clear.

    "It is very hard to recover the oil and the danger of the oil still coming out remains," Philippine Coast Guard chief, Vice-Admiral Arthur Gosingan, told a news conference.

    Officials have estimated that about 200,000 litres of fuel seeped from the submerged tanker, chartered by the Philippine' largest refiner Petron , producing a 20 nautical mile wide oil spill.

    Some families have been moved away from the shores of Guimaras, about 470 kilometres (290 miles) south of Manila, as the industrial fuel, reeking of newly-cooked asphalt, washed up on beaches, staining sand and nearby trees.

    "We plan to leave this place temporarily because I cannot breathe," said 81-year-old Emiliano Tenaflor.

    Others remained behind to try to dam the thick, greasy liquid, using wood, bamboo, oil drums and tyres.

    Empty Nets

    "We spent two hours at sea and this is what we got," said Mike Galimba, 30, pointing to five small fish in his oil-smeared boat.

    Many others came back to shore with nothing after hours combing the contaminated waters.

    Guimaras Governor Joaquin Carlos Nava told a local radio station that the livelihood of around 10,000 people, mostly fishermen, had been hit by the disaster.

    Health officials warned locals not to eat anything from the contaminated waters but some people, dependent on the sea for food, ignored the advice.

    "We wash the fish many times," said one woman.

    The Taklong island national marine reserve, located on the southern tip of Guimaras island, was also hit by the oil slick, jeopardising its rich stock of marine life, coral reefs, sea grass beds and dense forests of mangroves.

    "Oil by nature contains, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, they are persistent, they remain in the environment for sometime. It could kill planktons, fish larvae, reefs," Von Hernandez, Southeast Asia campaign director for Greenpeace, said

    "The damage is being done even as we speak." (Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila)

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    Large Oil Spill Occurs in Indian Ocean
    By Chisaki Watanabe
    The Associated Press

    Tuesday 15 August 2006

    Tokyo - A Japanese tanker spilled about 1.4 million gallons of crude oil in the eastern Indian Ocean following a collision with a cargo ship, the tanker's operator said Tuesday. Japan's Kyodo news service said the spill - which would be about 4,500 tons - may have been the largest ever involving a Japanese tanker.

    In a separate oil spill, the Philippines said that a tanker had sunk in rough seas Friday off the coast of Guimaras Island, about 312 miles southeast of Manila. About 528,000 gallons of industrial fuel was leaking from the accident, officials said.

    A central Philippine island province declared a "state of calamity" following what authorities called the country's worst spill.

    Faced with a potential "environmental catastrophe," the Philippine coast guard called for a national mobilization of resources to mitigate the impact of the large amount of leaking fuel, "which is now considered as the biggest major oil spill that has hit our country."

    The Japanese tanker Bright Artemis spilled the oil following a collision Monday with the Amar, a smaller cargo ship, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said in a statement. It said the took place when the tanker maneuvered near the Amar, which was in distress about 300 miles west of India's Nicobar islands.

    The exact amount of the spill was not clear, the announcement said. The tanker was carrying about 77.6 million gallons, or 250,000 tons, of crude. It had left port in Oman bound for Japan.

    There were no reports of injuries aboard the tanker, which had a Croatian captain and crew of 23, or the Amar, which was registered in Singapore.

    Mitsui said the spill had been reported to Singaporean and Indian Coast Guard officials.

    The largest oil spill involving a U.S. vessel occurred when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker emptied 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound off the coast of Alaska in 1989, killing hundreds of thousands of birds and marine animals and soiling more than 1,200 miles of rocky beach.