Massive oil spill off Australian coast puts marine life at risk

10/26/2009

The Montara oil spill off the Kimberley Coast of Western Australia in the Timor Sea Copyright © 2009 Chris Twomey/Senator Rachel Siewart's office

On August 21st, oil started leaking from an offshore oil well 125 miles offshore from Western Australia's Kimberley Coast, pouring hundreds of barrels a day into the Timor Sea. Thai-based PTTEP Australasia, the company that owns the well, made three attempts to plug the well, but still the oil kept spilling. As of Friday, a fourth attempt to plug the well failed and it was still leaking somewhere between 400 and 2,000 barrels of oil per day. Have you heard of this before now? I only heard of this over the weekend though it's been going on for weeks now. Why is it not bigger news?

WWF-Australia ran an expedition to survey the area in what's called the Montara oil spill, and what they found looked grim. Dolphins, fish, seabirds, sea snakes, sea turtles and other marine animals have been exposed to toxic chemicals, and some are dying. A recent satellite image of the spill found it stretched for over one hundred miles and is closer to the coast that previously reported so now beaches may be at risk as well as the offshore area which the WWF-Australia survey shows is rich with marine life.

"We spent three days surveying in the remote Timor Sea in the area of the slick, and it was literally sickening to see all this oil on the water and to see dolphins surfacing amongst it," said WWF-Australia’s Conservation Director Gilly Llewellyn, who was part of the expedition to the spill site. "If this was happening off the beaches of Sydney, then there would be global outrage, but because it is literally out of sight, then it seems to be out of mind."

"While we did not come across any dead wildlife literally in the water, we did see hundreds of animals in oil affected waters and there are confirmed reports of oil-affected seabirds dying on a nearby nesting island," Llewellyn continues. "Literally after two months there is only a trickle of information about the effects on wildlife and we are concerned that impacts are being downplayed. With thousands of barrels of oil in a rich marine environment for two months now, it has to be having a huge ecological impact."
 
In contrast, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association released a statement that stated there's no evidence of harm to wildlife. The company itself reported 25 birds affected by the oil, with 16 of those dead, but reported no marine mammals affected by the spill. But even when oil does not kill instantly, it leaves a toxic legacy, as happened with the Exxon Valdez in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. It can potentially lead to cancer and other wildlife disease, reductions in fecundity and other more subtle impacts.

This isn’t Australia’s only recent oil spill. In March an oil spill from a damaged ship spilled off the northeast Queensland coast, affecting affecting beaches, coral reefs, and marine wildlife. It hit Moreton Bay near Brisbane particularly hard. This is a gorgeous marine sanctuary that I visited with my two kids back in 2006. On a marine eco-tour we took in the afternoon, we saw a herd of hundreds of dugong – endangered relatives of manatees – plus dolphins playing in the wake of our small boat, spotted eagle rays gliding through the water, and more. The spill shut down beaches, killed seabirds, and other marine wildlife and the oil mixed with some ammonium nitrate fertilizer leading to toxic, carcinogenic sludge in the ocean.

Swire Shipping, which owns the boat, faces up to a million dollars in fines, and has formally apologized. “The company very much regrets the environmental impact caused as a consequence of the vessel being caught in Cyclone Hamish," they said in a statement. "The company and its insurers will meet all their responsibilities."

Australia prides itself on its green image, and one that loves it wildlife, so let’s hope that the efforts to clean up both these spills are rapid and effective!

Comments

[mark.dd]

Planetresource.net has a Eco friendly solution to clean up the tragedy British Petroleum has created, please watch the video animation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60bdQQQ3iVw and pass this along to as many people as you know.

One person can still make a difference in this world, is that simple interactions have a rippling effect. Each time this gets pass along, the hope in cleaning our planet is passed on.