Oil spill starts taking toll on fisheries, aquatic mammals

The latest oil spill has started taking its toll on  fisheries, aquatic mammals and also on the world's biggest mangrove forest Sundarbans although locals started mopping up spreading oil from the Shela River and other adjacent canals Friday, officials said.
The local administration has applied the traditional method to mop up the leaked furnace oil from the river in the morning in the face of strong protests of the Forest Department for spraying oil spill dispersant, they said.
The decision came in the morning, three days after the oil tanker collision that is set to cause an  adverse impact on the biodiversity in the mangrove forest as seepage of oil has already spread to more than 70 kilometres.
Following the decision, local villagers came up spontaneously with pots, pans and sacks riding on boats on the Shela River to collect oil for sale under the supervision of the Forest Division, BIWTA (Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority), Coast Guard, naval police and the Mongla port authorities.
Talking to the FE, BIWTA Chairman Md Shamsuddoha Khandaker said following protests, the authority has postponed the decision of spraying dispersant chemicals on the surface oil slick to break down oil into smaller droplets that readily mix with water.
He said the state-owned Padma Oil Company Limited set up four purchasing centres there from where its contractors are buying oil from the locals at a rate of Tk 30 per litre.
Quoting a contractor of the oil company, he said nearly 4,400 litres of oil have already been purchased in the first eight hours.
"The mopping-up is taking place from Joymoni to Andharmanik, over a 15 kilometre distance of area along the Shela River and people from all walks of life have joined the oil collection drive," he said.
Chief Conservator (Khulna Circle) of the Forest Department Kartik Chandra Sarker said the forest keepers, with the help of fishermen, have sealed the entrances of canals with nets to stop oil from spreading further.
"We've protested the move of chemical dispersant use to contain oil on fears of endangering the ecology of the forest in the longer run," he said.
He said the nine-member probe committee, led by additional secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) Nurul Kabir, visited the spot. "The ministry also cancelled leave of all its officials in the area unless the situation improves," he said.
Divisional Forest Officer (Sundarbans East Zone) Amir Hossain Chowdhury said the area where the oil tanker sank is the sanctuary of dolphins or shushuks, which often come out of the water for breathing.
"But we did not see any of such aquatic mammals coming out of water since the spillage. This means it has started affecting the biodiversity of the Sundarbans, a UNESCO declared natural heritage site," he said.       
Citing local fishermen, he said they cannot catch fishes because of the thick layer of oil on surface water and dead fish was seen floating at some spots there.
The Oil Tanker (OT) Southern Star-7, carrying eight crew, sank at the Shela River near Mongla early Tuesday last, spilling oil on both sides of the river and the canals flowing through the Sundarbans affecting at least 30,000 hectares of the forest, the forest officials said.
The tanker with 350,000 litres of furnace oil went down after a cargo vessel, Total MT (Motor Tanker), hit it from behind. Of the crew, Master Mokhlesur Rahman still remains missing while seven others swam ashore.
Talking about the issue, biodiversity expert and ethno-biologist Pavel Partho said the government should have applied the traditional method in mopping up the oil from the very beginning of the collision.
 "If they did so, the level of damage caused by the seepage could have probably been minimised," he said, adding that the adverse impact of the disaster will be visible within the next few days.
People in the locality were ready to collect the oil through the traditional method but they did not do it because of the resistance of the administration, he added.
    jubairfe1980@.gmail.com