Straits Times 10 Dec 07;
Fishermen and tourism operators also hit hard as long clean-up begins
SHINBURI BEACH (SOUTH KOREA) - MADAM Chung Hwan Hyang surveyed the damage wrought by a devastating oil slick, her wrinkled face saddened by the knowledge that the oyster farm she and her husband ran for 30 years is now lost.
'My oysters are all dead,' Madam Chung, 70, said yesterday during a break from cleaning oil off Shinduri Beach.
'I cried and cried last night. I don't know what to do.'
She is not alone in her despair, as other residents of Taean county, 150km south-west of Seoul, deal with the shock of seeing their lives and businesses suddenly destroyed by South Korea's worst-ever oil spill.
Maritime Minister Kang Moo Hyun said the clean-up would take 'at least two months', given the size of the oil slick.
'Even if some of the fish and maritime life survive, they wouldn't be marketable for a while,' Mr Kang said yesterday.
The Coast Guard said the last of three leaks in the Hong Kong-registered supertanker Hebei Spirit, rammed by an out-of- control South Korean barge, was plugged yesterday and the extent of affected coastline remained stable at 17km.
A total of 66,000 barrels of crude gushed into the ocean, more than twice as much as in South Korea's previous worst spill in 1995.
The leak is about a third the size of Alaska's 1989 Exxon Valdez crude oil spill, the costliest on record.
About 7,500 people, including Coast Guard, police and military personnel, civil servants and volunteers, were scooping up oil from the beach yesterday as others worked aboard 105 ships along the western coast trying to clean the water.
The central government has designated the oil spill a 'disaster', making it easier for regional governments to mobilise personnel, equipment and material to cope with the situation. Despite pleas, however, it stopped short of declaring the region a 'disaster area' - which would make residents eligible for government financial aid.
The area includes 181 aquatic farms producing abalone, seaweed, littleneck clams and sea cucumbers, said Mr Lee Seung Yop, an official. There are about 4,000 aquatic farmers.
No detailed damage estimates for the overall area have been released, though Mr Lee said officials feared it would be substantial.
About 63,800 people live in Taean, where fishing, seafood farming and tourism are the major industries.
More than 20.6 million tourists visited the area last year, and at least 18 million had arrived by the end of September this year, statistics show.
Motel owner Chun Kwang Ho said news of the disaster was keeping guests away. 'My business is ruined,' he said.
Raw-fish restaurant owner Kim Eung Ku, helping with the clean-up, said he feared the situation was hopeless.
'We have no choice but to leave this place. This ocean is dead,' he lamented.
ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
