China Ship causes 3km scar on Great Barrier Reef
china ship makes a 3km scar at the world's heritage, GBR
“The Chinese coal carrier Shen Neng 1 is shown on the Great Barrier Reef.”
my comments :->
As I was reading the sun newspaper today, a small EarthReport column caught my attention. I was furious when I first come to know that a China Ship had caused a 2-3km’s scar on the Great Barrier Reef! My impression was they must have come into a retricted waters, or took a shortCut and I was right……It’s a world heritage site for god sake! god know how many years to recover this disaster….those responsible need to be executed with the highest punishment as possible…
“Traveling at full speed and in broad daylight the Shen Neng 1 struck the reef after straying off a recognized shipping lane.” al-jazeera
some other source wrote :->
Australian police on April 14th arrested the master and another crew member of Shen Neng 1, a Chinese cargo ship, over its grounding on the Great Barrier Reef 11 days earlier. Buffeted by winds and tides, the stranded ship, carrying 65,000 tonnes of coal from the Queensland port of Gladstone to China, is reported to have gouged a channel more than 3km (1.9 miles) long through coral in the reef, a world-heritage site already at risk from worsening water quality and rising sea temperatures. Oil has also washed up on a nearby island that seabirds and turtles use as a nesting ground. Paint from the ship’s hull has been found attached to coral; scientists are testing it for heavy metals. David Wachenfeld, chief scientist of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, says it is “by far” the largest ship-grounding scar seen on the reef; it could take 20 years to recover. The ship was finally floated on April 12th, and anchored off Great Keppel Island.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Marine conservation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
