London – Monday A collision between a cargo ship and a tanker of oil In the North Sea, “there is a high risk of ecological disaster in really important protected areas,” Naomi Tilley said on Tuesday, a oil and gas campaign at Ocean UK, for CBS News on Tuesday.
The Coast Guard in the UK said that an area of exclusion of about half a mile was established around both vessels, which were no longer stuck.
“At this stage, it is too early to evaluate the extent of any environmental damage,” Greenpeace UK said in a statement early on Tuesday, explaining that the severity of any influence depended on numerous factors, including “the amount and type of oil carried by the tanker, the fuel carried by both ships, and how much, if any, in the water”
The Coast Guard in the UK announced that his team against pollution and rescue “assessed the situation” and “developing a plan ready to implement as soon as the situation allowed.”
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The air quality in the area has been reported that it is normal, and on the nearby shores there was a “very low” public health risk, according to the British Health Security Agency.
“At this stage, it’s really hard to know what’s in the water and how it will behave, but almost in any circumstances, it’s bad news,” Tilley told CBS News.
Tanker collision near protected marine areas
The North Sea is home to numerous protected marine animals, as well as vital fishing stock for the UK and other European countries.
The UK Ocean believes that the collision occurred near two protected areas, including the protected area of the Southern North Sea, which is marked to protect the Porpoise port, Tilley said.
“This is a really important area of cultivation and is really a large part of the global population in the area,” she said.
The port of Porpoise is “a species that has to come to the surface to breathe, so it won’t easily avoid stains on the surface,” Tilley told CBS News.
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In the meantime, a marine protected area of holder at sea for safety of seabed habitat is protected.
“There are ocean quahogs, who live for centuries. They are a kind of shells that are really long -lived. Both the sea stars and underwater sponges and things … Both are really important parts of the sea and are very close, if not and where this incident happened,” Tilley said.
Possible pollution
Both vessels involved in the collision would have its own fuel to drive, and an American tanker that was hit, MV Stenac Immaculate, also transported jet fuel, according to Crowley, an American logistics group managing a vessel.
Jet Fuel is toxic to marine life, and Crowley said some were released in a collision.
“Stena Immaculate held a cracked cargo container containing a JET1 fuel due to a collision,” Crowley said in a statement to the Reuters news agency. “The fire occurred as a result.”
It was still not clear how much jet’s fuel was released and how much it had already burned in the fire.
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The initial reports showed that the containers wearing sodium cyanid on the second ship, the Portuguese cargo ship called MV Solong. Sodium cyanide is a toxic substance that evaporates quickly and could create dangerous air conditions on the surface of the water cleaning of crews and animals.
The shipping company that manages the vessel, however, Ernst Rust said on Tuesday that there are no containers containing sodium cyanide on Solonga, but that four previously contained chemicals and supervised them.
Potential risks for the fishing industry – and consumers
Tilley said that the pollution from the collision could affect the supplies of fish in the North Sea and the people who rely on them.
“The North Sea is an extremely important area for fishing fleets in the UK, as well as European fishing fleets,” Tilley said.
The extent of any environmental pollution is still unknown, she said, but it could have a really long -term effect on the community, such as if the chemicals end up in water. If this affects the fish and the population of the fish we eat, it could affect the fishing industry. “
Tilley noted that the previous large oil spill “resulted in a rather huge area where the fishing was not allowed because of the polluted fish for a long time.”
