Marine Accident Report
By B Santhosh Reddy
Two cargo ships collided at the Kamarajar Port at Ennore, Chennai in
the wee hours of Saturday 28 January 2017 , resulting in an oil spill that
washed ashore turtles and threatened the livelihood of fishermen.
As BW Maple, the LPG carrier, plunged into Dawn Kanchipuram, the
collision not only ruptured the void space between the inner and outer walls
(hull) of the ship, but likely ruptured a fuel tank too. Conflicting reports
have emerged over whether a slop tank ruptured too.
Port
officials
maintain that the oil that washed ashore was the ship's fuel
oil, not the cargo oil or residue, and that, regarding the initial
low estimate of the quantity of the oil spilled, they went by
what the ship staff told them. There was no casualty or injury
to the crew members.
Kamarajar Port had immediately deployed oil boom around
the vessel to contain seepage, if any. After examination, the
damaged vessel was towed safely and berthed at Kamarajar
Port on January 30 to prevent any further possibility of oil
spill.
A massive clean-up operation was launched in Tiruvallur,
Chennai and Kancheepuram districts by engaging more than
2,000 people at various sites
The Coast Guard has been coordinated the cleaning operations jointly with personnel from the Chennai Port and
Kamarajar Port, the state government and its agencies, Indian Oil Corporation, NGOs, cadet trainees from
maritime educational institutions and fishermen.
The Indian Oil Corporation has provided special bio-remediation material for treatment of the collected oil sludge
for its safe disposal