Thousands of people used shovels and buckets yesterday to clean up a devastating oil spill at a scenic beach on South Korea's western coast, some battling headaches and nausea from the stench.
About 7,500 volunteers, local residents, civil servants and members of the coast guard, police and military scooped up oil that began washing ashore at Mallipo beach on Saturday from a damaged supertanker, the Coast Guard said.
Still more worked aboard 105 ships along South Korea's western coast trying to clean the sea.
The Coast Guard said late yesterday 565 tons of oil had been collected, which would amount to about 5 percent of the total spilled. More oil was also retrieved via special absorbent mats placed on beaches, but the exact total was hard to discern.
"We collected a considerable amount of oil," said Kim Young-hwan, a Coast Guard official.
Tides of dark sea water started crashing ashore on Saturday at Mallipo, one of South Korea's best-known beaches 150 km southwest of Seoul. Seagulls were turned black and fish farms were threatened along the coast.
The spill occurred on Friday when a Hong Kong-registered supertanker was slammed by a South Korean-owned barge that came unmoored from its tugboat in rough seas about 11 km off Mallipo.
The Coast Guard said the last of three leaks in Hebei Spirit tanker had been plugged yesterday and the extent of affected coastline remained stable at 18 km.
A total of 66,000 barrels of crude oil gushed into the ocean, more than twice as much as in South Korea's previous worst spill in 1995.
Mallipo is an important stopover for migrating birds such as snipe, mallards and great crested grebes, and has an abundant fishing industry.
The affected area includes 181 aquatic farms producing abalone, seaweed, littleneck clams and sea cucumbers, said Lee Seung-yop, an official with the government of Taean County, where the beach is located.
The area of 63,800 people has about 4,000 aquatic farmers, he said.
The central government has designated the oil spill a "disaster," which makes it easier for regional governments to mobilize personnel, equipment and material to cope with the situation.
Despite pleas to do so, however, it stopped short of declaring the region a "disaster area" - which would make residents eligible for government financial aid.
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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