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Maritime states can't afford sea disasters

On Christmas eve, the Maltese freighter Tzini ran aground off Suao (蘇澳). The ship leaked over 100 tonnes of oil into the sea. The 200m-wide oil spill severely polluted the neighboring waters, extending 5km along the coast to Nanfangao (南方澳).

The media portrayed this as a repeat of the notorious Amorgos incident, when the ship Amorgos ran aground off the coast of the Lungken Conservation Area in Kenting National Park on Jan. 14, 2001.

This repeat brings some frightening facts into focus. The social conditions that allowed the Amorgos catastrophe to happen five years ago remain largely unchanged today. That oil spill seems to have taught us nothing about preventing future oil spills. As the people of a maritime state, how can we not take this issue more seriously?

The latest oil spill and the 2001 spill both occurred around big holidays, so reports and reactions to them were slow.

Also, since they both occurred in remote areas, the spread of news was delayed. The Christmas celebrations and commercial and political events are clearly hard news to compete with, even for oil spills significantly affecting Taiwan's marine ecology. Even without the holidays, media report only briefly on such cases.

The Amorgos spill occurred six years ago, but studies at Kenting National Park reveal that the ecological systems, and coral reefs in particular, have not yet recovered. Experts cannot even begin to say how long the recovery is going to take.

Unfortunately for us all, the authorities haven't taken action to prevent this kind of spill, even in the face of large-scale environmental damage.

Many projects are more challenging and risky at sea than on land. This is why the world's maritime states must have higher standards when handling marine matters.

But in Taiwan, which has a leading role in the world in terms of its fishery industry and sea transportation, such matters are undervalued by both the government and the public.

After the Amorgos spill, although the government filed a lawsuit against the ship's owner and demanded compensation, the inability to calculate the amount of compensation required and to successfully proceed with an international lawsuit highlighted how far Taiwan had to go before becoming a leading maritime state.

Laughably, a Norwegian court ruled that the ship's owner pay NT$9.53 million (US$294,000), while Taiwan's legal fees alone were NT$16.7. million.

Our government must be able to handle such marine disputes.

Over the past few years, politicians have repeatedly used phrases such as "maritime city" or "maritime state" in their campaigns to attract voters, but Taiwan's progress in maritime affairs remains limited.

Take the Cabinet's restructure plan, for example. The proposed marine affairs ministry that would have stressed Taiwan's ambition to become a true marine state was quickly sacrificed in political power struggles.

The status of the proposed marine affairs committee under the Coast Guard Administration suffered a similar fate. It was downgraded from an agency with real powers to a cross-ministerial negotiation unit. It will probably exist only nominally in future Cabinets, as the government has lost its determination and ambition to focus on maritime affairs.

As the Tzini spill is a repetition of 2001, it is painfully clear how forgetful people are. If we learn nothing from these disasters, Taiwan's dream of becoming a real maritime state will never be realized.

Chen Tai-an is a lecturer in the department of environmental resources management at the Transworld Institute of Technology.

Translated by Eddy Chang
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