SYDNEY (Reuters) - A major oil clean-up was underway off Australia's northeast coast Thursday to limit the damage to beaches and marine life after a ship lost 30 tons of fuel when its hull was pierced by a container washed overboard.
Marine experts are still searching for 31 containers of ammonium nitrate, used for making fertilizer and explosives, which were lost from The Pacific Adventurer off Moreton Bay near the city of Brisbane Wednesday.
If the containers, which have 620 tons of ammonium nitrate, leak it could cause major algae blooms which would choke marine life in Moreton Bay, say marine scientists.
Maritime Safety Queensland said the missing containers may never be recovered.
"It happened outside of Moreton Bay, on the eastern cape, in water with about 200 meters (600 feet) depth. If they sank it's likely they'll stay there," said a spokesman.
News reports from helicopters said the oil slick stretched 40 to 60 kms (25-40 miles) along the shore of Moreton Island.
A local lifesaver said oil globules stretched for about one km along one beach on the Queensland Sunshine Coast.
"As you walk along it sticks to the bottom of your shoe like glue," said David McLean from Marcoola Surf Life Saving Club.
Beachgoers were trying to limit the environmental impact, saving turtle eggs and cleaning up the oil, said McLean.
Wildlife injured by the oil spill were being treated by staff from the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency.
Heavy seas whipped up by a tropical storm, which caused the containers to break loose, were helping the oil clean-up by pushing the oil slicks offshore.
"Oil is a natural resource, it just breaks up naturally under weather, including the sun and water," said a spokesman for the Queensland state Environmental Protection Agency.
(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Valerie Lee)
Aussie beaches a 'disaster zone' after oil spill
Yahoo News 13 Mar 09;
SYDNEY (AFP) – Authorities in Australia have declared dozens of popular tourist beaches on the northeast coast as disaster zones, their once-pristine sands now fouled by a massive oil and chemical slick.
Queensland state's marine safety authority said up to 100 tonnes of fuel were now believed to have spilled from the Hong Kong-flagged ship Pacific Adventurer amid cyclonic conditions early Wednesday.
Moreton and Bribie Islands, and parts of the popular Sunshine Coast, were declared disaster zones, with the state's leader Anna Bligh.
"This may well be the worst environmental disaster we have seen in southeast Queensland," Bligh said.
Initial estimates put the spill at 30 tonnes, but authority spokesman John Watkinson said up to 100,000 litres could be washing up along a 60-kilometre (40-mile) stretch of the region's beaches, sickening local wildlife.
"We really want to know what amount is out there," said Wilkinson. "It's a hell of a lot more than 30 tonnes."
Describing it as a "potential environmental tragedy", Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged full government support for the clean-up effort, which could cost millions of dollars.
The oil flooded Moreton Bay, near the state capital Brisbane, after wild seas whipped up by tropical 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 vessel's owners, Swire Shipping, face 1.5 million dollars (977,000 US dollars) in fines if found guilty of environmental or maritime breaches, and have indicated they will meet the clean-up costs, estimated at 100,000 dollars per day.
"The company very much regrets the environmental impact caused as a consequence of the vessel being caught in Cyclone Hamish," Swire said in a statement.
"The company and its insurers will meet all their responsibilities."
Experts fear the fertiliser, a nutrient-rich chemical, could cause damaging algal blooms, suffocate fish and kill natural habitats.
Moreton Bay, a marine sanctuary, is home to a range of sea birds and other creatures, including turtles, dolphins and pelicans.
"The flow-on effects of oil spills can be substantive," an environmental protection authority spokesman said. "The longer-term impacts are yet to be realised."
Oil spill: Queensland beaches declared disaster zones
ABC News 13 Mar 09;
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has declared Moreton Island, Bribie Island and southern parts of the Sunshine Coast disaster zones after a massive oil spill.
Sixty kilometres of coastline is covered in the slick, which came from the Pacific Adventurer after it was damaged earlier this week in rough seas whipped up by cyclone Hamish.
Up to 100,000 litres of heavy fuel oil leaked into the ocean from the cargo ship.
Ms Bligh met with an emergency response group last night.
She says the spill is much bigger than originally reported by the ship and the effect will be widespread.
Ms Bligh says public access will be restricted to the areas to allow pollution response teams to clean up.
Clean-up coordination centres have been set up in the disaster zones.
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg says the Government's handling of the clean-up has been farcical.
"We've now got the ridiculous situation of the Government chasing the councils off the beach who are there with heavy equipment trying to clear up oil spills and oil slicks that are more than 20 and 30 kilometres long," he said.
"They're running around with a few buckets and shovels and they are being told that this is the clean-up strategy, now this is ridiculous."
Mr Springborg yesterday voiced support for Environmental Protection Agency staff overseeing the clean-up. But he now says he was misled when he was told it was under control.
"It's either been a cover-up or absolutely incompetently mishandled," he said.
Ms Bligh says suggestions of a cover-up are ridiculous.
"This is a 60km oil spill. Any suggestion that anyone would want to cover it up or could is simply nonsense," she said.
Sunshine Coast
Emergency groups will meet on the Sunshine Coast this morning to formulate a plan to clean-up the oil spill.
Sunshine Coast Council environment manager Stephen Skull says it is too early to say how long it will take to remove the oil.
"It's certainly bigger than the first reports I was getting in terms of the extent of it and the magnitude of what's impacting our beaches," he said.
But the worst fears of Sunshine Coast residents have been realised, with the oil slick washing into the Maroochy River.
Local Murray Johnson says the State Government did not respond quickly enough to the unfolding disaster.
"They should be able to put something in place pretty rapidly to sort of safeguard against this sort of thing, because for Queensland it's a major tourism place and no-one's going to like having black scud all over the beach," he said.
But Mayor Bob Abbot says the blame game must wait until the immediate crisis is resolved.
"Got the issues with communication and that sort of stuff, but the important thing is to get this thing fixed first and I'm more interested in doing that than anything else.
"We can argue about who said what and when and who pays when it's over. As far as I'm concerned, we've got to go full steam ahead and stop it getting any further up the river."
Meanwhile, Greens Leader Bob Brown says he is astonished the Queensland and federal governments are so unprepared for a major oil spill.
Senator Brown says Australia should have a national coordinating service.
"We have always known that a much worse spill like those we have seen in Europe and Alaska could occur in Australia, where is the nationally coordinated action?" he said.
Fishing industry fears
Queensland Seafood Industry Association president Neil Green says the 30 containers of ammonium nitrate that fell off the Pacific Adventurer on Wednesday morning remain a major concern to commercial fishermen.
""Thirty of this size [of] containers are like 30 houses out there in the ocean, where our guys are going to be out there trawling and hook up on one of these," he said.
"They could capsize and that's a major problem for us. We're looking at the possibility of major areas being wiped out, environmentally-wise."
He is concerned about the long-term effects of ammonium nitrate polluting a major fishing area in south-east Queensland.
"We're horrified. Looking at the location of where these containers went over, it's smack bang in the middle of our major trawl grounds," he said.