Philippine coast guard says oil leaking from sunken tanker
Philippine tanker has started to leak into Manila Bay, the coast guard said Saturday, calling for a suspension of fishing in the waterway.
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The MT Terra Nova sank in bad weather in the busy waterway early Thursday, killing one crew member and leaving the country potentially facing its worst oil spill disaster.
The oil slick has more than tripled in size from Thursday and is now estimated to stretch between 12-14 kilometres (7.5-8.7 miles) across the bay, which thousands of fishermen and tourism operators rely on for their livelihoods.
Divers inspected the hull of the vessel on Saturday and saw a «minimal leak» from the valves, coast guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said, adding it was «not alarming yet».
«It's just a small volume flowing out,» Balilo said.
«We're hoping that tomorrow we will be able to start syphoning the oil from the motor tanker.»
The coast guard has warned that if the entire cargo leaked it would be an «environmental catastrophe». It has previously said the oil leaking from the tanker appeared to be the diesel fuel used to power the vessel, which is resting on the sea floor under 34 metres (116 feet) of water.
Oil containment booms have been deployed for what Balilo earlier described as «the worst case scenario» of the cargo leaking out. The vessel sank nearly seven kilometres from its origin in the port of Limay west of Manila.
