Cong leader demands steps to save Goa beaches from tarballs

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Shantaram Naik has asked the Environment Ministry to take steps to save Goa beaches from tarballs, an aquatic pollutant.
In a letter to Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, he said the Government should take steps to ensure that crude oil ships refrain from deballasting at sea.
He said tarballs -- a blob of petroleum -- pollute beaches including Calangute, Candolim, Colva and Benaulim "turning them black, badly affecting tourism in Goa."
Naik said he had raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha sometime back and his doubts have come true that ships carrying crude oil clean their tanks off the Goa coasts disregarding international norms.

He cited a study conducted by National Institute of Oceanography, which blames South East Asian Crude Oil (SEACO) for the problem.
"It is possible that tankers proceeding to the Middle East with SEACO are likely to clean their tanks in the Arabian Sea. The resulting oil undergoes weathering process, leading to tarball formation," says a National Institute of Oceaonography (NIO) study.

He said the study also indicated that there was no oil tank accident in the sea and therefore the tar balls must have been only because of cleaning of tanks.
Naik said strict vigilance by various national authorities can control occurrence of tarballs on the Goa coast.

In the letter, Naik also regretted that "during the recent visit of the Minister to the State, officials, perhaps, did not deem it fit to take him to the affected beaches around Goa".