Stricken ship refloated after Solomons oil spill

Yahoo – AFP, 11 May 2019

The ship was carrying more than 700 tonnes of heavy fuel and leaked a huge
amount of oil into the sea

The ship at the centre of an environmental disaster near World-Heritage listed waters in the Solomon Islands was refloated Saturday after being stranded on a coral reef for more than three months.

The MV Solomon Trader ran aground on February 5 while loading bauxite at Rennell Island, about 240 kilometres (149 miles) south of the capital Honiara.

The 225-metre (740-foot) ship was carrying more than 700 tonnes of heavy fuel and leaked a huge amount of oil into the sea, sparking an international effort to contain the spill.

"They have been trying to refloat the vessel since Thursday but because of low tide they have not been able to, until today", the chairman of the Solomons National Disaster Council, Melchior Mataki, told AFP.

An oil slick more than six kilometres long has spread along the shoreline, destroying the livelihoods of islanders who rely on waters in the ecologically delicate region.

Rennell Island is the largest raised coral atoll in the world and includes a UNESCO World Heritage site which extends kilometres out to sea.

Authorities have said the site was not affected by the spill, although Mataki said a detailed environmental assessment will be undertaken now that the vessel is out of the way.

"There is a preliminary report but the full report will be made known once assessments and investigation findings are compiled properly", he said, adding the government would likely seek compensation for environmental damage.

The Australian government had sent salvage experts to assist the response and vowed to help the Solomons make sure those responsible for the spill are held to account.

The Hong Kong-registered ship was chartered by Indonesian-based Bintan Mining and was loaded with almost 11,000 tonnes of bauxite at the time of the incident.

Mass seal deaths in Russia's Lake Baikal

France24 – AFP, 31 October 2017

AFP/File | The Baikal seal is the smallest in the world

Around 130 dead seals have washed up on the shores of Russia's Lake Baikal, authorities said Tuesday, as they launched a probe into the latest problem to hit the world's deepest lake.

The Baikal seal is the smallest in the world, and exactly how and when the species colonised the ancient Siberian lake is still a mystery.

"There were about 130 animals found dead" over the past few days, said environmental ministry spokesman Nikolai Gudkov.

"We took water samples to understand whether we can talk of water pollution as the reason," he told AFP, though results have not yet been processed.

Scientists have also taken biopsies of the animals, he said.

The animal is not endangered and Gudkov said the species' population has actually increased in recent years, growing to around 130,000.

Preliminary theories about the die-off did not suggest pollution is the reason, he added.

Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which has thousands of endemic species, has been suffering from a string of detrimental phenomena over recent years.

These include depletion of fish stocks, death of endemic sponges and explosion of growth of Spirogyra algae unnatural to the lake which scientists say is caused by pollution.

Around 130 dead seals wash up on shores of Russia's Lake Baikal, latest problem to hit the world's deepest lake https://t.co/Z4UnF4AYFH pic.twitter.com/NAv2W6C5pq

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 31, 2017

Australia approves coal port expansion near Barrier Reef

Yahoo – AFP, Martin Parry, December 22, 2015

Australia has approved a controversial port expansion to support coal mining
 projects and the dredging of spoil despite conservationists' fears it threatens
the Great Barrier Reef (AFP Photo/Sarah Lai)

Australia on Tuesday approved a controversial port expansion to support mining projects and the dredging of 1.1 million cubic metres (2.4 million cubic feet) of spoil despite fears it threatens the Great Barrier Reef.

The decision, creating a huge port capable of handling up to 120 million tonnes of coal per annum, comes two months after the government green-lighted an Indian-backed plan to build one of the world's biggest mines in the same area of Queensland state.

The Aus$16.5 billion (US$12.1 billion) Carmichael project by Adani Enterprises in the Galilee Basin, home to vast coal reserves, has attracted fierce criticism, requiring the fossil fuel to be shipped through the deepwater Abbot Point Coal Terminal which is currently at capacity.

Environmentalists have argued that any expansion at Abbot Point risked the World Heritage-listed reef's health and would destroy local habitats.

Environmentalists argue that any expansion

 at Abbot Point risks the health of the World 

Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef and 

destroy local habitats (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)

"The Queensland state Labor government's Abbot Point Growth Gateway project has been approved in accordance with national environment law subject to 30 strict conditions," a spokeswoman for Environment Minister Greg Hunt said.

Earlier plans were for at least three million cubic metres of material to be dredged and dumped into waters around the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, but this was later abandoned after an outcry.

The approval now permits 1.1 million cubic metres to be dredged, allowing more freighters to dock at Abbot Point, near the town of Bowen, but spoil must be disposed of on existing industrial land.

"No dredge material will be placed in the World Heritage Area or the Caley Valley Wetlands," said Hunt's spokeswoman. "The port area is at least 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) from any coral reef and no coral reef will be impacted."

The decision comes barely a week after 195 nations, including Australia, agreed in Paris to try and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

Hunt said he was comfortable that good-quality Australian coal would feed Indian electricity consumption.

"If they didn't have Australian participation... they would be using lower quality fuel," he told ABC radio.

"So lower quality fuel and lower efficiency (power) stations -- so the net global impact of not using Australian fuels would be for emissions to go up, not down."

'Illogical, irresponsible'

Adani, which has previously accused environmental activists of exploiting legal loopholes to stall its massive open-cut and underground mine which is forecast to produce 60 million tonnes of thermal coal a year for export, welcomed the decision.

"The expansion of Abbot Point, the lifeblood of Bowen, is key to Adani's plans to deliver 10,000 direct and indirect jobs and Aus$22 billion in taxes and royalties to Queensland," it said in a statement.

Critics argue that plunging coal prices make the development financially unviable, while major European and US banks have refused funding due to environmental concerns.

Greenpeace said the Abbot Point go-ahead was "irresponsible for the reef, illogical and unnecessary".

"Adani hasn't got the Aus$16 billion, no-one's lending it to them, and coal prices are tanking. Even the International Energy Agency is questioning the project," said Greenpeace reef campaigner Shani Tager.

WWF-Australia said the waters around Abbot Point were home to dugongs, sea turtles and snubfin dolphins while the dredge spoil would be dumped on land adjacent to wetlands used by migratory birds.

"It's disappointing that the minister has approved this project within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, despite the damage it will do," spokeswoman Louise Matthiesson said.

Plan won't save Great Barrier Reef: Australian scientists

Yahoo – AFP, Madeleine Coorey, 28 Oct 2014

An aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, taken

August 1, 2013 by the Australian Institute of Marine Science. (AFP Photo)

Australia's plans to protect the Great Barrier Reef are inadequate, short-sighted and will not prevent its decline, the country's pre-eminent grouping of natural scientists said Tuesday.

The draft plan, released for consultation last month, was supposed to allay concerns by the United Nations about the reef's health after UNESCO threatened to put it on the World Heritage "in danger" list.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is degraded

 and its condition is worsening, scientists

warn. (AFP Photo/William West)

Environment Minister Greg Hunt has said the proposal reflects an effort to balance the priorities of protecting the reef, which is teeming with marine life, and long-term sustainable development.

But the Australian Academy of Science warned that the plan ignored the impact of climate change and failed to address problems with poor water quality, coastal development and fishing.

"The science is clear, the reef is degraded and its condition is worsening. This is a plan that won't restore the reef, it won't even maintain it in its already diminished state," academy fellow Terry Hughes said.

"The plan also seems overly focused on the short-term task of addressing UNESCO's concerns about the reef's World Heritage Listing, rather than the longer-term challenges of restoring the values of the reef."

Hughes said while the plan identified targets for reducing harmful agricultural run-off, any improvements would likely be lost in the unprecedented amount of dredging for coal ports and the Queensland state government's plans to double agricultural production by 2040.

The survival of the reef depended on a reduction in pollution from run-off and dredging, less fishing and a decrease in carbon emissions from fossil fuels, he said.

FILE - In this Sept. 2001 file photo provided by provided by Queensland Tourism, an

 aerial view shows the Great Barrier Reef off Australia's Queensland state. Ocean acidification

 has emerged as one of the biggest threats to coral reefs across the world, acting as the

 "osteoporosis of the sea" and threatening everything from food security to tourism to livelihoods,

the head of a U.S. scientific agency said Monday, July 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Queensland Tourism, File)

A vision for the reef

A spokesman for Minister Hunt said the "Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan" states the government's vision to improve the health of the reef over successive decades.

"We note the Academy is calling for such a vision, and it is front and centre of what we are working to achieve," he said.

He said the plan acknowledged that climate change was a global problem requiring global action, and was being addressed by the government through other policies.

The draft, prepared by the Australian and Queensland governments, calls for greater coordination between authorities in relation to the reef, a proposal welcomed by environmentalists.

It also urges a 10-year ban on dredging to develop new ports or to expand existing ones both inside and next to the World Heritage site -- apart from in priority port development areas.

A turtle is seen on Australia's Great Barrier

 Reef which supports a vast array of marine

life .(AFP Photo/William West)

And it bans future port developments in the Fitzroy Delta, Keppel Bay and North Curtis Island near Rockhampton -- areas of the reef described by environmentalists as key incubators of marine life.

But environmentalists have criticised the draft as not setting high enough targets for cutting agricultural pollution or providing the billions of dollars required to restore the health of the reef.

With the government's final reef plan due in December, WWF-Australia and the Australian Marine Conservation Society called for stronger action to protect the major tourist attraction.

"The reef is one of the world's great natural wonders and we cannot allow it to be turned into an industrial park and a shipping super-highway," campaigner Felicity Wishart said.

The colourful coral faces a number of pressures including climate change, poor water quality from land-based runoff, the crown-of-thorns starfish, which eat coral, and the impacts of coastal development and fishing.

12 Chinese jailed for illegal fishing in Philippines

Yahoo – AFP, 5 Aug 2014

Photo released on April 10, 2013 shows the Chinese fishing boat that ran

aground off Tubbataha reef, in Palawan island, Western Philippines

Twelve Chinese fishermen were handed long prison terms on Tuesday for illegal fishing in the Philippines after their ship ran aground on a World Heritage-listed coral reef, a court official said.

The 12 were arrested at the Tubbataha Reef, a marine sanctuary in the western Philippines famed as a pristine dive spot, in April last year after their 48-metre (157-foot) boat hit and badly damaged it.

Boat captain Liu Chiangjie and his crew had pleaded not guilty, telling the court in the western city of Puerto Princesa that they had merely got lost but regional trial court judge Ambrosio de Luna rejected the explanation as "highly incredible and unbelievable".

Photo released on April 10, 2013 shows

 Philippine Coast Guard personnel

inspecting the Chinese fishing vessel that

ran aground off Tubbataha reef in

Palawan island, western Philippines

The court imposed the maximum punishment of 12 years for the boat captain and prison terms of between six and 10 years for the rest of the crew, clerk of court Hazel Alaska told AFP.

The 12 told the court they would appeal against the ruling.

All were found guilty of violating the anti-poaching provisions of a 2009 law that gave the Tubbataha Reef protected status, according to Alaska.

The fishermen were also fined $100,000 each, while their boat was forfeited, Alaska added.

They were the first foreigners to be found guilty of violating the law, according to Herminia Caabay, legal officer for a council that helps the western province of Palawan protect its natural resources.

Dead pangolins in boat

The fishermen were still on trial for possession of protected species within the park, Alaska said, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The Philippine coast guard had said hundreds of dead and frozen pangolins were seized from the Chinese fishing boat.

Pangolins are widely hunted in parts of Asia, including Palawan, for their meat, skin and scales.

In China they are considered a delicacy and to have medicinal qualities.

The boat captain had earlier testified during the trial that the boat's global positioning system navigational equipment had broken down on their way home from Indonesia, and as a result they did not know where they were.

The 12 are among dozens of Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen who are detained in Palawan for illegal fishing.

Among the others are nine Chinese fishermen who were arrested on May 6 off Half Moon Shoal, a South China Sea outcrop claimed by both China and the Philippines.

However the 97,000-hectare (230,000-acre) Tubbataha Reef, which was listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1993, is in a part of the Sulu Sea claimed only by the Philippines.

Photo released on April 19, 2013 shows the Chinese fishing boat (R) that ran

aground off Tubbataha Reef being towed away by a tugboat

It requires long sailing in Philippine waters to reach.

Asked if the decision would affect ties with China, Foreign Department spokesman Charles Jose said in a statement: "The verdict was based on applicable Philippine laws. And the place where these Chinese fishermen were apprehended in April 2013 is part of the Philippines' internal waters where it has exclusive sovereignty."

The Chinese boat ran aground less than three months after a US minesweeper ploughed into the reef while transiting through the area. The US Navy had to cut up the vessel in a salvage operation that took 10 weeks.

The Philippines fined the United States 58 million pesos ($1.33 million) for damaging the reef, but laid no criminal charges.

"This is a breakthrough in our campaign against environmental degradation," chief provincial prosecutor Alen Rodriguez told AFP after the court handed down its verdicts.

"I hope this will be the start of a winning streak."