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Fishermen’s association complains oill spill will hurt catches, livelihoods

“The fishermen’s fishing tackles are tainted with oil, as well as some catches.”

— Tsai Kun-huei, chairman of the Fishermen’s Association of Shihmen and Jinshan townships

An oil leak from a ship that ran aground off the coast of Taipei County last week has damaged local fishermen’s livelihoods, a fishermen’s association official said yesterday.

Although the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has said the oil leak would not have a major impact on the local ecosystem and that there were no sensitive ecological areas in the area, local fishermen are still worried about their catches for the rest of this year, said Tsai Kun-huei (蔡崑輝), chairman of the Fishermen’s Association of Shihmen (石門) and Jinshan townships (金山).

“The fishermen’s fishing tackles are tainted with oil, as well as some of the catches,” Tsai said.

At least 4,000 of Shihmen Township’s 12,000 residents are fishermen, Tsai said, adding that the oil leak has severely hurt their livelihood.

The local ecosystem also might not be restored in a short period of time, he said.

Tsai said he was also worried that the oil leak would hurt fishing for flathead mullet, which is currently in season.

Flathead mullet a favorite fish in Taiwanese cuisine.

The oil came from the Panama-registered cargo ship Morning Sun, which was forced to drop anchor near Taiwan while enroute from Singapore to South Korea because of bad weather.

An operational mistake caused the ship to run aground 300m offshore near Shihmen, fracturing the ship’s hull.

About 91 tonnes of heavy oil leaked out, polluting 3km of coastlines.

More than 363 tonnes of heavy oil and diesel fuel remain in the ship’s fuel tank, and the EPA estimated that it would take 18 days to remove all the oil from the tank.

Chen Hsien-heng (陳咸亨), director general of the EPA’s Department of Water Quality Protection, told a press conference that the operation to remove the oil left in the tank would begin today if weather conditions permitted.

Although the fracture in the fuel tank still has not been found, Chen said, booms that can absorb and block the oil from spreading have been deployed near the ship and the shoreline.

Meanwhile, the First Nuclear Power Plant has been told to set up the booms to prevent the oil from entering its water intake, Chen said.

Chen said that about 200 residents are cleaning up the oil that has already been washed ashore every day but about 700m of coastline still needs to be cleaned up.

However, the clean-up work would be finished within a week, he said.

An interagency task force from the Coast Guard Administration, Fisheries Agency, Taipei County Government, Jinshan Township fishermen’s association, Keelung Harbor Bureau and the ship owner is helping with the clean-up.
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