Oil Spill Disaster Assaults Rare Mangrove Habitat

Disaster has struck Bangladesh in the form of a massive oil spill - one that could inflict major damage on one of the world's largest mangrove forests and the countless rare flora and fauna that can be found there.

The disaster, which began after an unidentified vessel struck an oil tanker carrying 360,000 liters of oil on Thursday, occurred just outside the Sundarbans conservation area in south Bangladesh - a heavily protected UNESCO World Heritage site. The tanker had been bringing fuel to a power plant in nearby Gopalganj.

According to reports from The Associated Press (AP), the tanker has since been recovered by a rescue vessel, but not before it had nearly 30 hours to leak oil into two of the main rivers that run through the Sundarbans.

Two tanks housing an estimated 120,000 liters of oil were later identified as intact. However, the other four tanks containing nearly 238,000 liters of oil showed signs of having lost tens-of-thousands of gallons according to Rafiqul Islam, a Bangladeshi shipping ministry spokesman, told the Agence France Presse (AFP) on Thursday.

"This catastrophe is unprecedented in the Sundarbans and we don't know how to tackle this," added Amir Hosain, chief forest official of the Sundarbans. "The oil spill has already blackened the shoreline, threatening trees, plankton, vast populations of small fishes and dolphins."

Rubayat Mansur, the head of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bangladeshi office, confirmed what Hosain had to say after visiting the disaster site. He told the international media that the response to this spill lacks coordination, with villagers simply wading out into the rivers to scoop up sludge by the bucketful.

One of the most immediate concerns is about the irrawaddy dolphin - a rare and threatened species of freshwater dolphin that lacks habitat diversity. With the number of mangrove regions limited and depleting, the Sundarbans are thought to be one of the few remaining regions that can support a healthy irrawaddy population. It is estimated that nearly 6,000 of these rare dolphins can be found in the now oil-slicked region.

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