Sunken oil tanker salvaged after 52 hrs

About 52 hours after its capsize, ‘OT Southern Star 7’ has been salvaged. The sand carrying cargo-vessel-turned oil tanker was pulled out from Shela River in Sundarbans' west zone in Bagerhat district on Thursday morning. The salvage vessels of Ms Harun & Co had dragged its sunken oil tanker to the bank of the river before 2 navy ships – Shah Poran and Akter Uddin – and 2 other rescue vessels sent from Barisal and Narayanganj reached the spot. ‘OT Southern Star 7’, which was a river vessel to carry sands from one district to other before it was converted to a fuel oil-carrying ship, was loaded with 357,664 litres of furnace oil when it went down after being hit by ‘MV Total’, a smaller vessel, on the Shela at Mrigmari in Sundarbans’ Chandpai Range early Tuesday. The massive oil spill from the tanker has already put the biodiversity and ecology of the world’s biggest mangrove forest, a world heritage site since 1997, at risk. Three vessels of Ms Harun & Co, the owner of ‘OT Southern Star 7’, have pulled out the oil taker from the river around 9:00am today, Divisional Forest Officer Chowdhury Amir Hossain informed. There were eight inter-connected tankers in the ‘OT Southern Star 7’, he said adding that 6 of the tankers cracked following the hit by cargo vessel ‘Total’. As the tankers were interconnected, most of the 0.357 million litres oil spilled out of the tanker into the river stretching over around 70 kilometres. Two other salvage vessels sent from Barisal and Narayanganj reached Joymoni area in the morning. Sulatan Mahamud, a fuel oil transportation businessman, said the tanker was not capable of carrying oil. It was mainly built for carrying sand. As a result it capsized after being hit a minor a cargo ship. Environmentalists and researchers are deeply concerned that the oil from the tanker could spread to the east and west sides of the Sundarbans because of the tides. The oil has already spread to the northern and southern regions, according to a news agency.