The crew of an oil tanker, the Stena Immaculate, have been praised for their “heroic action” after trying to put out the fires on their ship following a collision with cargo ship, the Solong.
On Monday 10th of March US-flagged ship, the Stena Immaculate, was transporting 18,000 tonnes of jet fuel for the US military, whilst the Portugese-flagged Solong had been making its way south to the Netherlands from Scotland.
The Solong struck the larger oil tanker about 13 miles off the East Yorkshire coast, in a busy shipping area.
The captain of the Solong, a 59-year-old Russian national, was arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter on Tuesday, with the exact cause for the crash still being unclear.
Commenting on the aftermath of the collision, Dr Paul Johnston from the Greenpeace Reaearch Laboratories said: “We’re not quite out of the danger zone yet, but it’s starting to look like an environmental disaster may have been narrowly averted.
“When a container ship the length of a football pitch rams into a tanker carrying thousands of tonnes of jet fuel at 16 knots close to sensitive nature sites, the potential for serious harm is huge.
In terms of minimising any further risks to marine life, the priority should now be to ensure as far as possible that both ships remain afloat, that no further jet fuel leaks from the tanker and that the cargo of the container ship is fully characterised and secured.
As investigations get underway, we must learn every lesson possible from this incident. Ship collisions, groundings and sinkings are not uncommon.
Though an incident of this scale is rare, any such accident has the potential to become an environmental disaster.
This incident is a stark reminder of the inherent risks associated with millions of tonnes of oil and oil products floating in tankers on our oceans each and every day.
Whether it’s air pollution, climate change or oil spills, fossil fuels are a risk multiplier wherever they are produced, used and found – the sooner we reduce our dependence on them, the better.”
The flames have since been distinguished on the Solong, however, it continues to emit smoke with concern from experts over just how much jet fuel has entered the water due to damage to the tanker.
Local wildlife trusts have warned of a potentially “devastating” impact on local habitats and species, including threatened seabird colonies, grey seals, harbour porpoises, fish and minke whales.
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