Freight Ship Crashes into Great Barrier Reef, Threatens to Spill Hundreds of Tons of Oil

by Juan-Pablo Velez · 2010-04-05 11:33:00 +0100
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An environmental nightmare is in the making: A Chinese coal freighter has slammed into the Great Barrier Reef and is threatening to spill up to 1,000 tons of fuel oil into the planet's largest marine ecosystem. (Click here for video footage.)

The Shen Neng 1 was carrying coal en route to China when it ran into the reef at full-speed. It had wandered 9 miles from its authorized shipping channel, into a protected section of the reef that is off-limits to shipping. It's not yet clear why the ship strayed so far from the open water shipping lanes that 6,000 ships navigate safely each year.

Beyond the destruction of the surrounding coral, the damage so far is minimal. At most 2 tons of oil have leaked out; an aircraft poured chemical dispersants on the resulting 2-mile-long slicks this morning. Reef officials are monitoring their effectiveness before deciding whether to use any more.

The waves are rocking the boat on the shoals, causing further damage to the hull.

The fear is that the boat could collapse so long as it remains aground, or during the attempt to salvage it. Officials are keen to avoid a major environmental catastrophe, but warn that the salvage operation could take weeks and will be incredibly difficult.

“It is in danger of actually breaking a number of its main structures and breaking into a number of parts,” Maritime Safety Queensland General Manager Patrick Quirk told reporters in Brisbane, according to the AP. “Continued leakage of oil is probably the best case we could expect.”

Officals are already floating the possibility of legal action against the ship's owners and captain. If a follow-up investigation finds that they broke Australian shipping laws, they could be fined up to $950,000.

Local environmentalists are horrified about prospect of a major spill and outraged that freight ships are not required to hire local pilots familiar with the area.

Let's hope the stars align and the reef can dodge this bullet. Between climate change, farm run-off, and overfishing, it has already has enough to deal with. The rub: freight traffic in the area is increasing due to the booming coal trade between Australia and China.

Photo credit: Australian Maritime Safety Authority / EPA

Juan-Pablo Velez is a blogger, journalist, and environment writer based in Chicago.
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