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‘Colombo Queen’ caused damage to coral reef: MOI

The stranded oil tanker Colombo Queen damaged some coral formations off Pingtung County, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday, adding that the amount of damage remained to be determined.

Results of a preliminary investigation showed that an area of about 300m² surrounding the 497 tonne tanker had been affected, about 150m² of which was covered with coral, officials from the ministry’s Construction and Planning Administration said.

The officials said they would continue to monitor the affected area to determine whether any oil had leaked from the stranded ship and whether it had affected other marine life.

CLEANUP

Meanwhile, work that began a day earlier to remove the 39,000 liters of oil from the stranded tanker was suspended on Tuesday because of bad weather caused by the approaching Tropical Storm Nangka, the Pingtung County Government’s Environmental Affairs Bureau said.

As the storm is poised to progress toward the Bashi Channel and the Taiwan Strait, the company authorized by the bureau to pump out the oil from the Colombo Queen altered its plan and is now working to prevent further damage to the ship by strong winds, which could trigger leakages.

The ship, registered in the East African island nation of Comoros, foundered on a reef just 50m from the coast in Pingtung County’s scenic Jialeshuei (佳樂水) coastal park area on Saturday during Tropical Storm Linfa.

FEARS

The Colombo Queen was on its way from Hiroshima to Sri Lanka and local authorities were concerned about a replay of the January 2001 Amorgos disaster, in which 1,150 liters of oil spilled from a Greek ship stranded in the same area.
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