Yahoo News 14 Mar 09;
SYDNEY (AFP) – An oil spill polluting popular tourist beaches on Australia's northeast coast is 10 times worse than originally reported, according to the state government.
Dozens of beaches have been declared disaster zones after they were fouled by a massive oil slick spilled from the Hong Kong-flagged ship Pacific Adventurer in wild seas on Wednesday.
Initial estimates put the spill at 20-30 tonnes of oil but "it is now apparent that it was about 230 tonnes," Queensland state's Deputy Premier Paul Lucas told public radio.
About 60 kilometres (almost 40 miles) of beaches have been hit by the oil, with Moreton Island about 40 kilometres off Brisbane city the worst affected.
The crisis was sparked when high seas whipped up by Cyclone Hamish toppled 31 containers of ammonium nitrate fertiliser from the ship's deck.
As they fell, the containers punctured the hull, before taking 620 tonnes of the explosive chemical to the ocean floor.
The ship's owners, Swire Shipping, said an inspection of the hull by a diver on Friday had found that the damage was greater than initially believed and "it is likely that substantially more oil has spilled than the earlier estimate".
Swire faces 1.5 million dollars (977,000 US dollars) in fines if found guilty of environmental or maritime breaches
"The company very much regrets the environmental impact caused as a consequence of the vessel being caught in Cyclone Hamish," it said.
"The company and its insurers will meet all their responsibilities."
Swire had to launch a separate clean-up effort Friday after the ship docked and leaked more oil into the river running through Brisbane, Queensland's capital.
Apart from the oil damage, experts fear the fertiliser could cause harmful algal blooms, suffocate fish and kill natural habitats.
Moreton Bay, a marine sanctuary, is home to a range of sea birds as well as turtles, dolphins and pelicans.
Hundreds of people are working to clean the beaches and save affected wildlife.
Oil 'disaster' hits prime Australian beaches
Kathy Marks, The Independent 14 Mar 09;
Dozens of beaches in southern Queensland, popular with tourists, were declared a disaster zone yesterday, with 40 miles of once-pristine sands fouled by an oil slick and local wildlife under threat.
Up to 100 tonnes of oil are believed to have spilled from a cargo ship, Pacific Adventurer, after its hull was punctured in seas whipped up by a tropical cyclone. Thirty-one containers of ammonium nitrate fertiliser were knocked off the ship’s deck during the storm, and are thought to be lying on the ocean floor.
Worst affected are beaches on Bribie and Moreton Islands, just north of the state capital, Brisbane. Both are national parks, and home to a range of sea birds and marine life, including turtles, dolphins and pelicans. A handful of oil-soaked creatures have been caught and cleaned, but wildlife officials fear many more are likely to be affected.
Oil has also come ashore on the Sunshine Coast, on the mainland. The Queensland premier, Anna Bligh, said: "It may well be the worst environmental disaster Queensland has ever seen." She warned that the government would be presenting the owners of the Hong Kong-flagged ship with a "very large compensation claim".
Officials said the situation was likely to worsen, with sludge expected to wash ashore for weeks. They are also concerned about the impact of the fertiliser, that could cause major algae blooms, choking marine life in Moreton Bay.
Scores of environmental clean-up workers spent yesterday raking up sticky black sand and trying to prevent oil from spreading into nearby mangrove swamps and waterways. The declaration of a disaster zone gave authorities the power to close off public access to stricken beaches.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the ship, owned by the British company Swire Shipping, had been detained after being brought to port, still leaking oil. The state government accused Swire of initially misleading it about the size of the spill and its likely impact. The company faces fines of up to A$2m (£941,000) and could be liable for up to $250m more in penalties for causing environmental damage. In a statement, Swire said it "regrets the extent of the environmental pollution caused by spills of heavy fuel oil from the ship and the company is offering assistance with the clean-up". The company and its insurers were in discussion with the government about clean-up costs, it said.
Pacific Adventurer was on its way from the port city of Newcastle, in New South Wales, to Indonesia when it was caught in last throes of Cyclone Hamish. As the ship was tossed around, the containers – containing 620 tonnes of ammonium nitrate – fell off the deck and ruptured a fuel tank.
The clean-up operation, expected to cost millions of dollars, is a delicate one, as stormy seas and high tides are continuing to erode beaches, carrying the oil into nearby rivers. However, large waves are also helping to break up the slick, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
A spokesman for the agency said: "The flow-on effects of oil spills can be substantive. At the moment, we’re very lucky ? but obviously, we’re worried it might escalate."
Oil spill a calamity for all creatures
GoldCoast.com 14 Mar 09;
EVERYTHING from microscopic organisms which live in sand to dolphins and dugongs are at risk from the oil spill.
Marine botanist Associate Professor Peter Ralph from University of Technology Sydney said it would take time to learn the full extent of the damage.
"They don't know how much (oil) is on the sea floor," said Prof Ralph."We don't know when the drums are going to rupture or what they are going to do. The only thing we know is what is on the beaches."
Prof Ralph said the oil covering the beaches and floating on the ocean became less toxic each day, but was still lethal for sea life.
"When the oil is exposed to the air and light, all of the volatile toxins are broken down and they're released, so the older the oil is, the more wave action that stirs it up and aerates it, and the more time it is exposed to sunlight, the less toxic it becomes," he said.
"It stops air exchanges and it stops gas exchanges so when it's stranded on a beach it seals everything up.
"It seals the sand. It stops gas exchange with all worms, crustaceans and all the things running around inside the beach -- in the sand, not just on the surface -- so they will all be suffocated."
Prof Ralph said other sea animals were still at risk, particularly dugongs who feed on seagrass.
"What will happen is the oil will form little globules which will sink to the bottom," he said.
"Dugongs could potentially be grazing on seagrasses and oil could be in the sediment linked to the seagrasses so they could accidentally graze on droplets of oil and that wouldn't be good."
While only a handful of animals have been captured and taken away for cleaning, it is believed many more will perish.
Tangalooma Island Resort director Trevor Hassard said many animals were still in danger.
"I flew past some green turtle nests on Moreton Island one metre away from the 10 metre-wide oil slick," said Mr Hassard. "If the hatchlings come out in the next couple of days, what are they going to do?
"I even saw a dolphin come up in the oil slick.
"If it gets into the bird rookery area there are little sandpiper bird and they are like ping-pong balls with legs. If they get oil over them they will just die."
Mr Hassard said the oil slick was getting worse by the day.
"It's over a bigger area," he said.
"The oil is not as thick but it's more spread out."
