THE Sea Empress oil spill is the worst British marine disaster since the Torrey Canyon spill in the English Channel in 1967. On Monday the Countryside Council for Wales reported moderate to severe oiling of 190 kilometres of coastline from Ramsey island to Pembrey. “The oiling is more or less continuous,” said the council’s chief scientist Malcolm Smith. “And there is more oil still at sea. The full scale of the damage will take weeks to become clear.”
Some 12 per cent of the entire Welsh coastline is now severely oiled. By comparison, the Braer oil spill off Shetland three years ago oiled about 10 kilometres of coastline. And this is prime coastal habitat. So far, slicks have hit Britain’s first two marine nature reserves (Skomer and Lundy islands), more than a dozen sites of special scientific interest including major bird colonies, the country’s only coastal national park, and several current and proposed European Union Special Areas for Conservation. This is just the beginning.
By Monday more than a thousand oiled birds had been counted and some 300 dead birds had washed ashore. There are hundreds of oil-covered common scoters in Carmarthen Bay, which hosts an internationally important colony at this time of year, with a third of the British population.
Meanwhile, the region’s sea birds have begun to return after a winter at sea. Thousands of guillemots have returned to Skomer to find thick oil smeared on the southern and eastern shores, including North Haven, where thousands of birds gather on the water. Guillemots are “especially vulnerable to oil pollution because they dive in response to danger, rather than flying away”, says Margaret Brooks of the Dyfed Wildlife Trust.
An oil sheen has reached Grassholm island, where 65 000 gannets – the world’s second largest colony – are returning to breed. Others at risk include oystercatchers, red-throated divers, Manx shearwaters, great-crested grebes, cormorants and shags.
The wildlife of the South Wales coastline is among the best documented anywhere in the world. The bays near Milford Haven have for decades been described in great detail by scientists and students visiting the Dale Fort Field Centre.
“For the first time we will be able to do really good comparative work in the aftermath of this disaster,” says Mike Everett of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The Welsh Office has given £250 000 to begin monitoring the impact of the oil. Besides observing birds, it will look for damage to the area’s rare sponges, algae, starfish and corals, especially around Skomer.
Rock pools will be one target. The Dyfed Wildlife Trust claims that all 3000 green rockpool starfish in West Angle Bay, one of only seven populations in British waters, have been killed. But some stones will be left unturned, says Julian Cremona of Dale Fort. “Often there is clean water under boulders along the shoreline, with crabs skittering about. But if you lift the stones you can let the oil in.”
2007: Sea Empress, carrying 130 000 tonnes of light crude oil to a Texaco terminal in Milford Haven, runs aground just outside the haven. 6000 tonnes of oil lost.
2200: Refloated by tugs but listing.
Weather good. Ship afloat, crewed and held by four tugs.
1530: Coastguard reports: “Salvage teams planning how best to transfer remaining oil to other vessels”.
0145: Coastguard promises “attempt to lighten vessel” in “early afternoon”.
0930: Tanker’s pump room flooded. Has to be dried out before pumping “today or sometime tomorrow”. Weather still good, but gales forecast. Pilots call for ship to be taken out to sea for oil transfer, where tides are less strong and pollution hazard less. Overruled.
1600: Salvors turn ship’s bow into storm.
1830: Tugs lose lines, anchor chains snap. Ship grounds again.
2230: Salvors flood bow to stabilise ship on bottom at low tide and plan to refloat it on the morning tide.
0230: Ship evacuated as storm worsens. Dawn refloat called off. Extra tugs ordered.
1630: Chinese tug De Yue gets line to tanker. Gales are forecast, and salvors evacuate.
0100: De Yue replaced by smaller tug after problems in gale. Vessel “held in position” overnight, but continues to leak oil.
1200: Salvors “establishing ground moorings to fix vessel firmly to seabed”. Now say preparatory work for pumping “expected to take at least two and half days”.
1900: Strong tide means tugs cannot control tanker, which moves 400 metres and grounds again on rock pinnacle.
2300: Salvors evacuate, fearing breakup.
“Large amount” of oil lost overnight, but “no damage” to ship, says Coastguard. Political row grows over handling of salvage.
1900: Air pumped into ship to increase buoyancy, to refloat ship and move it to new position outside haven.
0200: Morning refloat cancelled. Minister says “insufficient buoyancy, not power” is the problem.
1900: Finally refloated on high tide and taken to jetty in haven within two hours. Leaks continue. Pumping to begin “tomorrow”, Coastguard says.
1100: Pumping “likely to start tomorrow”.