The BBC has published an excellent article on the effects of the X-Press pearl fore and sinking off Colombo, Sri Lanka and the short and long terms effects of such an incident.
It makes sobering reading.
One has to feel for the owners of the X-Press Pearl, a 3-month-old vessel, the victim of a poorly packed container with drums of acid in it that appear to have mixed together causing the fire that eventually destroyed the whole cargo and the vessel itself.
Whilst insurers will replace the vessel, compensate those who owned the cargo and pay for the clean-up; who compensates those subsistence fishermen whose fishing grounds have been destroyed for years and the biodiversity lost on the reef that feeds them.
Fortunately, ITOPF has four staff and Oil Spill Response are on the scene doing what they can to manage the effects of the spillage.
Read the article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-57395693
