MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands: little environmental threat from stricken fishing vessel
Fears of major environmental damage, prompted by the news that a Taiwanese fishing vessel the HWA JAAN 161 had grounded off one of the Falkland Islands' prime natural visitor attractions, have somewhat abated today in the light of the latest reports.
At 04.46 on the morning of Tuesday 17th April, the duty officer of the Falkland Government's Fisheries Department received a call from the Royal Falkland Islands Police to the effect that a Taiwanese jigger, heading into Berkeley Sound to tranship its catch of squid to a waiting cargo ship, had grounded at Volunteer Point, home to extensive penguin colonies, including the Islands largest colony of King Penguins. Three local agency launches, a helicopter and another fishing vessel all attended the scene within an hour and a half, by which time the crew of 31 had abandoned the ship in three life rafts. While the helicopter crew checked the vessel to ensure that no one remained aboard, all the survivors were transferred to launches and taken to safety in Stanley. At 10.18 on the same morning, the vessel sank some 4.3 nautical miles East South East of Eagle Point. A fisheries surveillance aircraft reported an oil slick approx. 3 nm long by 3-400m.wide drifting ESE and dissipating rapidly. The vessel was believed to have had 60 tonnes of gas oil on board. A further over-flight of the wreck scene the following day, 18th April, showed an oil slick emanating from the vessel extending around 400m down tide to the South East. No other patches of oil were visible to the west or north of the wreck site. A search made by launch close inshore and further offshore from the north end of Volunteer Beach southward, around Volunteer Rocks and the entrance to Volunteer Lagoon has also revealed no sign of any oil whatsoever. Harbour Master, Jon Clark, reports that the oil sheen spreading up to five miles from the vessel on Tuesday, has now completely disappeared and although there has been little wind, it appears that the current spring tide, which can run at up to 4 knots, is assisting in dispersing the oil. In a report to the Acting Governor, councillors and other interested parties, Mr Clark gave his opinion that with the vessel now sunk in more than fifty metres of water, hydrostatic pressure should provide a reasonably controlled leaching of any further oil, which with the tide and a return to usual wind velocities, should disperse fairly quickly without appreciable environmental damage. Grant Munro of Falkland Islands Conservation, a non-governmental environmental watch group, was also of the opinion that long-term environmental damage resulting from this accident would be negligible. Speaking on the Falkland Islands Radio Service's News Directprogramme, he said that while it was frustrating not to be able to do anything, in practical terms there was little to be done, except to continue to monitor the situation for any possible impact ashore. John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley
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