North Sea collision clean-up must be cautious warns Greenpeace scientistThe Independent
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00There is a risk of major environmental damage after a cargo ship collided with an oil
00:04tanker in the North Sea on Monday. A massive fireball erupted when the ships collided off
00:09the coast of Yorkshire. The oil tanker was filled with highly flammable jet fuel,
00:14while on board the cargo ship were 15 containers of toxic sodium cyanide.
00:19What will happen with the aviation fuel that spilled is that it will tend to distribute
00:23itself in a very thin layer over a very large area of water. Sodium cyanide is a very toxic
00:30material indeed and it has been used actually in the past for poisoning fish deliberately when
00:35people have gone reef fishing. These toxic materials spilling into the North Sea could
00:39devastate marine life and seabirds in the nearby Humber estuary. The biggest concern to the
00:44environment is the degree to which the materials can disperse, how far they disperse, whether the
00:51the waste will make its way down to the seabed as well and into the ecosystem
00:58of the seabed species. But yeah, the main concern is I think the seabirds and the
01:05impact on the intertidal as well. Attention is quickly turning to the
01:08clean up and ways of limiting environmental damage. The strategy has to be to get equipment
01:14in to contain oil spills into the area, to get heavy lifting equipment in and barges in to be
01:21able to recover as many containers that have been lost overboard.
01:24But to do all of this in a way that doesn't put people at any risk.