Liberian ship sinks; leaking oil, cargo hazard sparks alert in Kerala
A cargo vessel carrying 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous materials, sank off the Kerala coast on Sunday, triggering fears of environmental damage along the coastline that prompted the state government to issue an alert, officials said, adding that all 24 members of the ship's crew have been rescued.
The Liberian-flagged MSC ELSA 3 sank 14 nautical miles off the state's coast in the Arabian Sea around 7.50am on Sunday, almost a day after the ship developed a 26-degree starboard list –– marine term for tilt. The crew of the ship was rescued in a joint operation conducted by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Navy, the ministry of defence said in a statement.
The Elsa 3 is operated by MSC, one of the biggest shipping companies in the world, according to a listing on the company's website.
Amid concerns of oil from the ship's fuel tanks affecting the sensitive marine ecosystem along Kerala's coast, the ICG activated full pollution response preparedness, the ministry said. 'ICG aircraft equipped with advanced oil spill detection systems are conducting aerial surveillance and ICG ship Saksham carrying pollution response equipment remains deployed at the site,' it added.
According to an ICG statement, the ship had 84.44 metric tonnes of diesel and 367.1 metric tonnes of furnace oil in its tanks along with the containers of hazardous cargo and calcium carbide –– a chemical that reacts dangerously with seawater to release highly flammable acetylene gas.
The vessel, which departed for Kochi from Vizhinjam port on Friday, capsized due to flooding in one of the ship's holds. The coast guard rescued 21 of the vessel's 24 crew members –– including one Russian, 20 Filipinos, two Ukrainians, and one Georgian . The remaining members that stayed on board abandoned ship later and were rescued by INS Sujata.
Coast Guard inspector general (Western region) Bhisham Sharma said, 'All crew remain safe and Coast Guard is assessing the situation and issuing an advisory to state authorities.'
In the afternoon, Kerala chief secretary A Jayathilak convened a meeting to assess the situation. According to a release from the chief minister's office (CMO), the ship's fuel has started leaking and that around 100 containers may have fallen into the sea.
'Currently, the ICG is operating two vessels to prevent the oil from spilling and one Dornier aircraft to spray powder onto any spill. The containers drifting from the capsized vessel are likely to reach the coasts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts,' the release said. 'Since the oil spill can expand anywhere, warning alert has been issued throughout the coast of the state.'
The state government urged the public not to touch foreign objects or containers in the sea or near the coast. Those spotting such containers must dial the policy emergency number 112, the release said. The state also prohibited fishing activities within a 20-nautical mile radius of the spot where the vessel capsized.
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), based in Hyderabad, said the spilled oil pollutant can reach the coastal stretch of Alappuzha, Ambalapuzha, Arattupuzha and Karunagappally within 36-48 hours of release. 'These coastal zones are at risk of contamination and should be given prompt attention to minimise potential environmental impact,' the agency said.
The agency also said that based on simulation results from its Search and Rescue Aid Tool (SARAT), there is a 'high probability (45%) that overboard containers could drift towards a region covering the entire coastal district of Alappuzha'.
To manage the floating containers, the state government has ordered the constitution of rapid response teams (RRTs) under its factories and boilers department. Two RRTs in districts south of Thrissur and one in the northern coastal districts have been formed to operate cranes and other machinery to manage containers in the sea and translocate them to safer areas, the statement from CMO said.
Additional RRTs will be formed under the state pollution control board (PCB) if the oil spill nears the coast. The police and the state disaster management authority have been directed to provide assistance, it added.
The administration said that ICG, Indian Navy and the ports department have been directed to deploy booms and skimmers for handling and removal of oil spills.
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'Apart from increasing compensation for fishers' families, the State and Centre must also salvage the containers that toppled into the sea and those that remain on the ship. Otherwise, these will pose dangers in the long term to fishers and others who consume fish. The government must also inspect sea water samples every day to rule out contamination,' he says. Apart from Kerala's southern districts, there has been a lull in demand for fish in Kochi, says Ajith, a retail fish seller from Vypeen island, located off the Kochi coast. 'Many households have stopped consuming fish. But hotels and canteens continue to buy seafood,' he says. Compensation to fishers The Kerala Matsyathozhilali Aikya Vedhi (KMAV), a trade union of fishers, has demanded that MSC compensate fishers whose livelihood has been affected over the past fortnight. KMAV president, Charles George, asks why the vessel that ought to operate amid waves that can rise up to 15 m in height tilted on May 24 and sank on May 25 after encountering waves of a much lower height, of about 3 m. 'The ship sank less than 30 km off Thotapally, while the shipping channel is located 50 km away. In this situation, the captain ought to have been arrested and the operator company held accountable for the pollution. The Centre must take steps to ensure that the company pays compensation to fishers affected by the incident,' he says. George points to similar incidents in the Philippines, South Korea, and France where operator-owner firms 'paid compensation' to the affected people and for cleaning and restoring the marine environment, as per norms laid out by the International Maritime Organisation. KMAV secretary, N.A. Jain, says he is concerned about ensuring the safety of the 3,800 trawlers, over 1,000 fibre boats, and over 500 inboard fishing vessels operating off the Kerala coast. He demands that the State government prevail on the Centre to ensure that ships operate 50 km away from the State's coast, to prevent sinking incidents nearer to the coast, as well as the collision of ships with fishing vessels. While the Directorate General of Shipping and the Mercantile Marine Department attributed the sinking to technical failure in ballast-water management, which ought to ensure the ship's stability, senior officials of fisheries and marine research institutions say three committees, each headed by civil servants, have been formed to assess the damage caused by the shipwreck to the marine environment and to the fisheries sector. 'A joint report will be submitted to the agencies and research institutions concerned. As of now, there is no cause for alarm since marine pollution beyond the threshold would have resulted in 'fish kill', which has not been reported so far along the Kerala coast,' says a high-ranking official from one of the institutions. However, the State government must salvage the cargo and oil from the container vessel that sank. It must also incentivise people and agencies who collect plastic and other waste that were washed ashore, and send the waste for scientific recycling, he adds. The Chairperson of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board, Sreekala S., says there is no 'alarming' presence of pollutants in water samples that have been collected from the coast. 'Efforts are being made to collect samples from the vicinity of the sunk vessel and analyse them,' she says.
