Oil spill from sunken ship raises pollution concerns

Oil has started leaking from MV Black Rose, the ill-fated vessel which sank near Paradip port two weeks back, raising serious concerns of sea pollution among the fishermen communities and the environmentalists.

The environmentalists had earlier sounded caution about marine pollution due to oil spill from the vessel.

Local fishermen witnessed oil floating on the seashore this morning. They alleged that hundreds of marine fishes have been killed due to oil spill and dead fishes were floating on the sea shore.

Paradeep Port Trust's (PPT) pollution response tugs and the Coast Guard vessels which are monitoring the area regularly traced the escape of little amounts of grease and diesel from the sunken vessel today.

On thorough inspection, it has been ascertained that the spill is from the service tank of the engine room and is negligible. On hearing the news of the oil spill, two officials from the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) have rushed to the spot and have directed the PPT authorities to take immediate steps to check the leakage of oil from the wreck. Even after 12 days of the sinking of the vessel, the authorities of Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) were unable to evacuate oil from the vessel due to infrastructure constraints and also lack of cooperation from the company owning the vessel. Apart from carrying 23, 847 tonnes of iron ore fines the vessel was also loaded with 924 tonnes of furnace oil, 50 tonnes of diesel and 40 tonnes of grease. The possible leakage of oil posed threat to both human being and marine species.

The officials of Black Rose Maritime Shipping Ltd, the Singapore-based company owing the sunken vessel, is yet to reach Paradeep as the vessel did not have legal document or insurance papers.

Due to lack of infrastructure and equipment to evacuate oil from the wreck, the port authorities had sought the intervention of national and international experts for pumping out the oil from the sunken vessel.