Oil Spill in South Atlantic Threatens Endangered Penguins

[phantom power]

A major spill of heavy crude oil from a wrecked freighter has coated an estimated 20,000 endangered penguins on a remote South Atlantic island chain, the local authorities and environmental groups said Tuesday.

More than 800 tons of fuel oil has leaked from the Maltese-registered ship, which ran aground on Nightingale Island, part of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, a British territory, early in the morning of March 16, local officials said. All 22 crew members of the M.S. Oliva were rescued.

“The scene at Nightingale is dreadful, as there is an oil slick encircling the island,” Trevor Glass, a local conservation officer, said in a statement.

The ship has broken in half and an additional 800 tons of fuel oil is believed to be leaking from the front section of the hull, said a spokeswoman with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a British-based conservation group monitoring the situation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/science/earth/23spill.html?_r=1

[Angry Dragon]

1. K&R

[cyberpj]

2. Ocen drilling spills, freighter spills, earthquakes from fracking and broken nuclear reactors...

I think it's the Universe trying to tell us to get busy putting big bucks into clean energy or else. Huge oil slick problems in our oceans and earthquakes due to fracking and the nuclear reactor problems.

Too bad no one who can do anything about it wants to hear the message.