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Nearly Half of Oil Leakage Along Danish Coast Cleaned Up
Nearly half of the oil leakage in the Baltic Sea to the southeast of Denmark has been cleaned up and the harmful situation is already under control, said a local television report.
A Cypriot sugar freighter rammed last Thursday the oil tanker Baltic Carrier registered in Marshall Islands off southeastern Denmark, sending some 2,700 tons of oil into the Baltic sea, but the preliminary estimate by the Danish Maritime Authorities was less than 2,000 tons.
The collision site near the border of Denmark and Germany happens to be one of the sea birds sanctuaries in Denmark, and the most direct victims are probably the more than 10,000 bird habitants there. Danish officials estimated that at least 1,000 birds have died of this accident.
The Danish rescue department has put in more hands and vessels cleaning up the oil spills, and they were supported by Germany, Sweden and the Greenpeace Organization. This has resulted in progress much quicker than expected, according to the Danish Maritime Authorities. Half of the oil slick had been cleaned up by late Sunday.
The slick soiled more than 15 kilometers of coastline and it is also the most serious oil leakage that has ever happened along the Danish coast, reports said.
More than 200 people joined in the cleanup efforts on the coasts of the Moen, Bogoe, Faroe and Falster islands not far from the leakage center, officials said. Another 200 people are working at the sea to contain the oil.
It will take a few days to thoroughly clean up the leakage, the Danish authorities said, adding that the leftover of the spill would not do great harm.
In a preliminary report issued Saturday, the Danish Maritime Authorities attributed the accident to a possible steering problem with the Baltic Carrier tanker.
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