The clear blue seawater and white sand make Mallipo Beach in the Republic of Korea’s western coastal Taean County along the Yellow Sea, one of the country’s most popular seaside resorts.
But for nearly a year during 2007-2008, the over 3 km-long Mallipo seashore was covered by a black sludge after the crude oil carrier Hebei Spirit anchored off nearby Daesan Port was accidentally hit by an industrial barge on the morning of 07 December 2007 and leaked over 12,000 kilolitres of its cargo.
Described as the country’s worst oil spill, the Hebei leak affected over 70 km of coast in Taen County, 34,700 ha of marine farms and one of Asia’s largest wetland areas, causing an estimated US$3.8 billion worth of economic damage. It took over 10 months to remove the oil and sticky tar from the water and shores and a total of four years for affected coastal ecosystems to show signs of recovery. More than 2 million people, over half of them citizen volunteers worked with personnel from the Korean Coast Guard, Navy and other government agencies to clean up the affected coasts and inland waters.
The Hebei oil spill showed the importance of being prepared to respond swiftly to such disasters in a region with heavy maritime traffic and at high risk of leaks of oil and other highly noxious substances (HNS). Stretching from the Republic of China’s coast along the Yellow Sea to the eastern shores of Japan and the Russian mainland coast in the north, the Northwest Pacific region saw 26 oil and HNS spills of over 1,000 tons each, between 1990 and 2016, and more than 200 oil and HNS leaks ranging from 50 and 1,000 tons each.
Aware of the importance of working together to be better able to prevent and cope with such mishaps, Japan, the Republic of China, Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation have come together since 1994 on a United Nations platform to strengthen marine environmental disaster preparedness and response capacities.
A Northwest Pacific regional contingency plan to deal with oil and HNS spills adopted in 2003 was activated following the Hebei disaster with China and Japan shipping and airlifting 66 tons of sorbents to clean up the leaked oil. United Nations experts helping the four countries implement the Action Plan for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Northwest Pacific Region (NOWPAP), were dispatched to provide technical support to Korean authorities dealing with the spill.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the Hebei leak, the NOWPAP Marine Environmental Emergency Preparedness and Response Regional Activity Centre (MERRAC) brought together some 250 experts from NOWPAP member countries as well leading relevant international and global organizations to share worldwide experiences and expertise in dealing with maritime emergencies caused by pollution incidents.
The 6-7 December 2017 ‘International Maritime Disaster Response Conference’ held in Busan, Republic of Korea was organised with the support of Korea Coast Guard, Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering, Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation and Korea Environment Institute, to review lessons learned from major pollution incidents at sea, marine environmental disaster response policies and the latest know-how in coping with such disasters.
Experts at the Busan conference emphasised the emerging risks from offshore drilling incidents and deep water exploration that would require better response capacities. A highlight of the conference was a maritime disaster response exercise held in Busan Port by the Coast Guard of the Republic of Korea.
Based in Daejeon, Republic of Korea, MERRAC has been helping strengthen the region’s ability to cope with marine environmental disasters using scientific knowledge and operational exercises at sea.
With MERRAC support, NOWPAP member countries are also streamlining national capabilities. For example, China is finalising a national contingency plan for marine oil spill incidents and has boosted spill prevention and clean-up capacity that includes more than 200 oil spill response ships. Oil carrying ships are required to have oil pollution liability insurance and an Oil Pollution Damage Compensation Fund has been set up.
Japan has set up a National Strike Team specialized in dealing with oil and HNS spills, the latter an emerging risk for the region because of the difficulty of dealing with HNS leaks due to the wide variety and properties of such substances.
For further information please refer to NOWPAP MERRAC website at: http://merrac.nowpap.org/news/connector/1/text/news/basic/view/1/50/
