Oil Spill In Red Sea Worries Scientists

 

Scientists have called for action to remove the oil from an abandoned taker in the Red Sea that holds approximately one million barrels of oil -- four times the amount contained in the Exxon Valdez tanker which had a disastrous environmental oil spill in 1989.

According to the analysis, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, the tanker named Safer is a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) abandoned for years in the Red Sea.

"The time is now to prevent a potential devastation to the region's waters and the livelihoods and health of millions of people living in half a dozen countries along the Red Sea's coast," said co-author Karine Kleinhaus, Associate Professor of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University in the US.

"If a spill from the Safer is allowed to occur, the oil would spread via ocean currents to devastate a global ocean resource, as the coral reefs of the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba are projected to be among the last reef ecosystems in the world to survive the coming decades," Kleinhaus said.

She said the coral reefs of the northern Red Sea are unique since they survive in much warmer waters than today's ocean temperatures, which are becoming too high for most coral to tolerate.

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