August 11, 2006 - (What do you mean oil spills all look alike) The reason you haven't heard about this one is because it's only about 535,000 gallons of fuel ol, spilled from the
Solar I, an ironically named vessel for any number of reasons. Now it's down where the sun don't shine, leaking oil into the coral reefs and marine reserves of this central Phillippine province. Even so, it's the Philippines' worst oil spill ever, and it's screwing up the fishing for the foreseable future.
Worse than that, it's screwing up the eco tourism. Eco tourists hate oil spills in the mangroves, cause it's bad environmental mojo.
So far, the spill has affected or damaged 15 square kilometers (10 square miles) of coral reefs, over 200 kilometers (125 miles) of coastline, 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of marine reserves, at least two resort islands and 50 hectares (124 acres) of seaweed plantations.
In La Paz village, the oil slick has stained nearly everything on its shore, including the walls of shanties in which the locals live. Small fishing boats are grounded.
Coast guard officials don't know how much of the fuel oil has spilled out from the tanker, which is lying 900 meters (3,000 feet) under water. Nicasio Alcantara, chairman of Petron Corp., the fuel supplier, promised to help with the cleanup. Thanks, man.
Last year, more than 300,000 liters (80,000 gallons) of fuel oil spilled when a tanker ran aground near central Semirara island.
Nevertheless, the Lebanese government is whining that up to 30,000 tons of oil flooded into the sea after Israeli jets attacked storage tanks at the Jiyyeh power plant south of Beirut on July 13 and 15. The oil spill has fouled up to 100 kilometers of the nation's Mediterranean coastline and the Israeli blockade is preventing a cleanup. The damage has reached the coastline of neighboring Syria and is spreading north.