Over the weekend, an oil tanker carrying about 1 million barrels of a light crude oil sank into the ocean. It’s unknown how much of the toxic material has escaped into a prime commercial fishing spot between China and Japan.
An Iranian oil tanker sank into the East China Sea Jan. 15.
An Iranian oil tanker sank in a commercial fishing area in the East China Sea on Sunday, potentially unleashing one of the largest toxic spills in decades in a prime spot for commercial fishing.
The tanker, named Sanchi, was transporting 136,000 metric tons (or about 1 million barrels) of a flammable and toxic light crude oil, called condensate, when it crashed into a Chinese freight ship hauling grain on Jan. 6, triggering a series of explosions on the tanker and eventually sinking it.
While the entire crew of the CF Crystal freighter was rescued, Sanchi’s 32-person crew is considered dead and only a few bodies were recovered.
And the disaster is far from over. Around the collision site, which is located about 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai and is a hot spot for fishing, there’s an oily sheen on the ocean surface. As of Wednesday, the oil slicks stretched about 108 square kilometers total (or nearly 42 square miles), according to Richard Steiner, an Alaska-based environmental consultant who helped respond to the Exxon Valdez spill.
Chinese officials are cleaning up the surface spill, according to the South China Morning Post. They also have sent down robots to survey the underwater shipwreck for possible leaks. (When asked about the spill response, the China State Oceanic Administration did not immediately respond.)
From Deepwater Horizon in 2010 to Exxon Valdez in 1989, the biggest offshore oil spills in recent history have involved heavy crude oil.
