WWF 24 Aug 09;
WWF warned today that an oil spill off Australia’s North West coast may take a heavy toll on the region’s globally significant wildlife.
“This is a potential disaster for turtles, whales, dolphins, sea birds and sea snakes,” said Dr Gilly Llewellyn, WWF-Australia’s Conservation Manager.
“The oil and gas spill is still not under control and is expected to continue leaking for two months. Depending on winds, the slick could be pushed to atolls like Scott and Ashmore Reef – areas that are globally significant for their unique wildlife.”
Marine species such as green and loggerhead turtles are at serious risk from the pollution.
“Turtle hatchlings spend a huge amount of time on the surface of the water. Unfortunately, this means that recent hatchlings from the beaches and islands of North West Australia could be swimming into the slick,” said Dr Llewellyn.
The spill occurred at the edge of Australia’s continental shelf, an ocean highway used by loggerhead turtles, dolphins and endangered species such as the pygmy blue whale.
WWF warned that increasing the number of offshore oil and gas ventures in the region is significantly increasing the risk to marine life.
“The more industrial activity, the higher the risk – it is a simple equation,” said Dr Llewellyn.
“We urgently need to consider both short and long term ways of preventing and containing spills like this one, as well as reducing the footprint of industrial development on creatures like marine turtles.”
As the Federal Government prepares to release its environmental assessment of the proposed Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island, a Class A nature reserve and important rookery for flatback turtles, WWF is calling on all parties to consider safer alternative locations for the massive project.
“We strongly urge the Government and oil companies involved to move the proposed LNG plant to the mainland to reduce the risk of harm to our marine wildlife,” said Dr Llewellyn.
WWF has suggested Ashburton North, on the Western Australian coast may be more suitable for gas processing.
Chevron, one of three companies involved in the Gorgon project (along with Exxon Mobil and Shell) has already filed applications to develop another LNG project in the vicinity. By building infrastructure on the mainland, both the environmental and economic costs of such projects could be reduced.
“The environmental challenges on the mainland are by no means trivial, but they are vastly more manageable than at Barrow. This decision needs to be made urgently and should be the highest priority for the Government,” said Dr Llewellyn.
The location of oil and gas infrastructure would not be enough to ensure the safety of some of the world’s most diverse marine ecosystems.
“To seriously address the long term health and survival of marine species we need to build a network of large marine sanctuaries for Australia’s north west which can act as a safety net, giving animals safe passage through the oceans.”
Australian oil spill clean-up to take '7 weeks'
Yahoo News 24 Aug 09;
SYDNEY (AFP) – A major oil spill at a drilling rig off Australia's northwest coast will take at least seven weeks to contain, authorities said Monday.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said a Hercules aircraft spraying dispersant had helped reduce an oil slick that at one point stretched eight nautical miles (15 kilometres) but the spill remained a major incident.
Oil and gas began leaking from the West Atlas rig, about 250 kilometres off the Australian mainland early Friday, forcing the evacuation of 69 workers.
AMSA spokeswoman Tracey Jiggins said the Bangkok-based company that operates the rig, PTTEP Australasia, planned to bring in a second offshore platform to help cap the West Atlas well but the operation would take time.
"I don't know whether it's one of Australia's worst spills but it's certainly significant," she told AFP.
"The protracted nature of the operation means that it's a really major incident for us."
Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said seven weeks was a conservative estimate of how long it would take to cap the well-head, which lies in waters some 1.2 kilometres deep.
"This is of course is a remote location and it's a very complex operation, we need to make sure that we get it right," he told reporters.
"There unfortunately isn't a quick fix to this, we need to be honest about this."
While the government says the oil slick is not threatening Australia's pristine Kimberley coastline, green groups have criticised efforts to contain the spill.
Jiggins said AMSA responded within 15 minutes of hearing about the spill and she did not believe it had caused any environmental damage.
"We started mobilising people and resources as soon as we heard about the incident because initial indications were that it could eventuate into something significant," she said.
"We didn't want to take any risk with that so we mobilised as soon as we could and that's paid dividends."
She said two smaller aircraft were loaded with dispersant and available to back up the Hercules if needed.
"It's a day-to-day assessment, depending on conditions," she said.
