The Coast Guard said Saturday that among the 1.4 million liters of fuel oil from a sunken Philippine tanker had begun leaking into Manila Bay, calling for a halt to fishing within the waters.
The MT Terra Nova vessel sank early Thursday morning on account of bad weather within the busy waterway, killing one crew member and leaving the country facing its worst oil spill in history.
The oil slick has greater than tripled in size since Thursday and is now estimated to stretch 12 to 14 kilometres (7.5 to eight.7 miles) across the bay, supporting the livelihoods of hundreds of fishermen and tourism operators.
Divers examined the ship’s hull on Saturday and noticed “minimal leakage” from valves, coast guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said, adding that the situation was “not yet alarming.”
“It’s just a small amount of fluid that comes out,” Balilo said.
“We hope that tomorrow we will be able to start pumping oil from the tanker.”
The Coast Guard warned that a leak of all the cargo could be an “ecological disaster.”
It was previously reported that the oil leak from the tanker was more than likely diesel fuel used to power the vessel, which is resting on the seabed, 34 metres (116 feet) underwater.
In the event of a “worst-case scenario” of a cargo leak, as previously described by Balilo, oil spill containment booms have been deployed.
The ship sank nearly seven kilometers from the port of Limay, west of Manila, while attempting to return to port after heavy weather.
The incident occurred during heavy rains attributable to Typhoon Gaemi and the seasonal monsoon which have hit Manila and surrounding regions in recent days.
The state weather service said the monsoon weakened on Friday evening, giving authorities relative calm within the seas and allowing the cargo to be recovered.
The Coast Guard estimates the evacuation will take at the very least seven days.
The Philippines has needed to cope with major oil spills prior to now.
It took months to wash up after a tanker carrying 800,000 liters of business heating oil sank off the central island of Mindoro last 12 months, polluting the island’s waters and beaches and devastating fishing and tourism industries.
In 2006, one other tanker sank off the central island of Guimaras, spilling tens of hundreds of gallons of oil, devastating a marine reserve, ruining local fishing grounds and covering sections of the coast with black sludge.
