Oil Spill on Great Barrier Reef
Some good news out of Australia, the Chinese ship that had run aground on the Great Barrier Reef, which we discussed in an article on April 4th, has been successfully refloated off of the reef. Emergency workers were able to move the 750-foot ship without adding to the oil spill that had already covered 2 miles of ocean. The ship was moved in a hurry, as stormy weather front is supposed to enter that area tomorrow. The workers had to remove 1,000 tonnes (or 2.2 million pounds) of fuel from the vessel prior to the storm in order to facilitate the refloating. Though this incident won’t lead to a giant fine that we are all hoping for, it is spurring officials to drastically increase the fines already set in place, up to $10 million. It is also reported that the ship in this incident strayed about 15 nautical miles from the recognized shipping lane, eventually running aground on Douglas Shoal at full speed.
