Oil Spill

Oil Spill off Singapore coast
A cargo tank on the Malaysian registered tanker MT Bunga Kelena 3 was damaged when, at around 6 a.m local time, the vessel collided with the MV Wally, a bulk carrier registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.
The spill, which took place eight miles (13 kilometres) off Singapore’s southeastern coast in the Traffic Separation Scheme, is estimated at 2000 metric tonnes, or about 14,660 barrels. The TSS runs along the Straits of Malacca and Singapore.
Four patrol and emergency response vessels and three private craft equipped with oil-spill equipment have been sent to the affected zone.
Nobody was injured and ship traffic was not affected by the incident, which took place eight miles (13 kilometres) off Singapore’s southeastern coast in the Traffic Separation Scheme, which runs along the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. Singapore is Asia’s biggest oil-trading and storage centre.
Both vessels were anchored off Singapore, Asia’s biggest oil trading and storage centre, after the accident and neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia have been notified, the MPA said.

Impact of oil spills on marine life
The Malaysian Natural Resources and Envi¬ronment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas said on 2 Jun that the oil spill "appears to have no lasting effect on the affected coastal areas". He said "Once the beach has been cleaned, there is no effect and no more odour of oil because the sea current is moving and there is clean water flowing in". Adding he could see the difference between one spot
Peter Ng, director, Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, said on 30 May: "In the short term, some animals will die. We have not seen mass kills but I'm sure some are affected". The breathing of fishes, for example, will be affected if their gills are coated with oil. "(In the) longer term, the oil will affect the animals and plants in different ways. It may reduce the reproduction, it may reduce the growth rate, it might reduce their strength. And that has long-term implications."
Marine biologist Prof Chou Loke Ming explains that when oil slicks hit, they prevent corals from getting enough sunlight, cut off oxygen by coating plants and fish gills, and harbour volatile organic compounds that can poison marine life.

If most of the oil is removed, the impact from poisons and a lack of oxygen can be reduced, Professor Chou said, but spraying dispersant chemicals can break up the oil into smaller droplets which can sink to the bottom and affect marine life deeper in the sea.

In the longer term, how long will shores take to recover? Marine life may take three to four years, depending on the severity of the impact, Prof Chou said.

Commenting on how long oil from a spill lingers in the environment, climate expert Michael Totten, of international non-governmental organisation Conservation International, said that would depend on the type of oil, location, currents and weather conditions. For instance, more than 98 tonnes of oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska still lingers in the sands of Prince William Sound, as the remote area was hard for clean-up teams to reach.

Cleaning up oil
Cleaning up oil is tough at the beginning and gets harder every day. The first job is to contain a spill, a nearly impossible task in the real world.

On the water, booms which absorb and contain spills on relatively calm seas can be used to herd it into big pools that can be sucked up or burned. Chemical dispersants which separate crude into fine droplets can be sprayed from ships and planes. Rusty-colored oil 'mousse' is formed where dispersants mixed into the water by waves are breaking down the oil.

Above all, the oil needs to be kept off shore, which over time is the most difficult thing to do. When oil hits land it's often for a short visit -- dropping off a sheen and then moving with the tides up or down the shoreline. Eventually though, the oil ages, becoming a tar -- like a blob that gloms onto a surface and won't let go.

That's fine on a hard-packed sandy beach, which is the best place for an oil spill, since a careful lift of a thin layer of sand can get rid of most of the problem. But in marshes, new and old oil can spread thin and deep with a ferocity that makes any cleanup counterproductive -- boots kill more than the oil.



I hope that there will be no more oil spills in the future as it badly affects marine lives. Oil spills are harmful to the environment and needs effort to clean it up. It may take very long to clean up the oil spill even though not much oil are released into the sea. Hence I hope that ships would be more careful next time to avoid any collision.