Looming Massive Oil Spill Disaster Feared from Abandoned Ship in the Red Sea

A massive oil spill from a ship abandoned in the Red Sea is being feared. The tanker is a 45-year old ship named FSO Safer that is slowly rusting in its place off Yemen's western coast.

Its hold contains one million oil barrels, and it has been neglected by the owners for over five years. The old ship is a danger to the waters' ecosystems.

Due to the war between the Houthi rebels and forces from Saudi, the Yemeni company could not access the ship nor repair it. So far, the rebel forces refused intervention from the UN.

Environmental experts say that its 34 storage tanks will eventually be swallowed by the sea, which will cause a disaster four-fold worse compared to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

READ: How Ocean Pollution Damages Human Health

A study of the situation

A new study focused on the looming disaster and stated that one million barrels leaking into the sea will surely be a regional humanitarian and environmental disaster.

The study authors say that it will devastate the livelihood and health of millions who live in nations along the coast of the Red Sea. At-risk will be their food, air, water, and their harvests from the sea.

The study also added that local currents are going to bring the spilled oil to the delicate coral reefs which encompass over 4,000 kilometers of the coastline.

At the Red Sea's northernmost corner is the Gulf of Aqaba, which has the world's most pristine coral reefs. A study found that the corals in this region are remarkable in that they have resisted ocean acidification and increasing global temperatures.

Unfortunately, it may not survive an oil spill this large.

Running out of time

According to the model tracking the oil distribution for 30 days both during summer and winter, the tanker is now in the last stages of disrepair, and we are wasting time waiting on this looming catastrophe.

Projections show that the dispersion will reach the far north and the Red Sea's center in winter conditions, so that there is no time to waste, for the oil will have a wider spread and will be trapped for a longer time.

Lately, the rebels have allowed the UN to inspect the tanker and repair it. Unfortunately, this is delayed to January, if it will even push through. This is because, during the summer of last year, they also allowed the UN to intervene, but withdrew their permission on the eve of the scheduled repair.

Prevention measures should be implemented now, according to Karine Kleinhaus, a New York Stony Brook University coral researcher. She also adds that the Gulf of Aqaba and north Red Sea coral reefs are some of the few remaining coral reef ecosystems that are expected to survive the decades to come.

According to Kleinhaus, this tanker has given us the most advanced disaster warning we have ever had, and still, we are squandering our chance to prevent it. According to the study authors, we are rapidly losing the opportunity to pump the oil from the ship and contain a spill

Experts call the tanker a floating bomb. Diplomats think that the rebels are using the ship as if they possess a nuclear weapon and bargaining chip.

An environmental organization from Yemen estimated that an oil spill in the Red Sea will take the environment 30 years to recover, affecting over 126,000 citizens in Yemen alone.

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Tags Red Sea, oil spill