The government of south China's Guangdong
Province plans to ask the operators of two vessels that
collided and caused a massive oil spill near the mouth of the Pearl
River to pay for damages. An assessment of the extent of the damage
is currently being conducted, said an official from the Guangdong
Provincial Bureau of Ocean and Aquatic Products Industry on
Tuesday.
A task force is now inspecting the damage to the local marine
environment caused by the spill of crude oil from the December 7
collision of two foreign containerships. Its report is expected in
two weeks.
"The marine accident resulted in the spillage of more than 1,200
tons of crude oil, which has seriously damaged the ocean
environment and ecology in the waters of Guangdong Province," the
official told China Daily.
The oil spill was the biggest ever in Chinese waters, creating a
slick 17 kilometers long and 200 meters wide. Some of the crude oil
has dissolved into the deep ocean water, adding to the difficulty
of recovering it and cleaning it up, said the official, who
declined to be named.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the cleanup was ongoing and was
expected to continue for about two more days.
The accident took place in the South China Sea, near the Pearl
River estuary, when a Panamanian-registered ship collided with a
German vessel. No deaths or injuries were reported, but the German
vessel, the MSC Ilona, sustained damage and began leaking
quantities of oil from a storage hold.
China is a member state of the International Convention on Civil
Liability for Oil Pollution Damage. The convention's 1992 protocol
holds that the owners of ships causing oil spills are liable for
damages, when the ship is carrying the oil in bulk as cargo.
It is not yet clear whether the MSC Ilona was carrying crude oil
as cargo.
(China Daily December 15, 2004)