WITH hundreds of oil-covered guillemots, razorbills and other birds still being rescued or found dead each day along the coastline of Wales, Devon and Lundy, the full scale of the Sea Empress tanker disaster is becoming clear.
As the noisome black tide continues to roll in, it is necessary to consider how such environmental calamities can be controlled, if not entirely avoided, in the future. The Department of Transport has launched an inquiry and there is no reason to expect its final report to be a whitewash.
Investigators will not be confined to a simple explanation of how the Sea Empress ran aground, but will look at the whole, six-day salvage operation, including repeated failures to dislodge the tanker from a rock. (The environmental damage will last much longer even if, as so often seems to be the case, it is not as bad as scaremongers have us believe at the time.)
Nevertheless, there is justifiable concern that the scope of the inquiry will be insufficiently broad. It is not clear that investigators will look into the question of who has ultimate responsibility for dealing with wrecks, and when that authority should swing into action. At no point did the Sea Empress salvage teams, whose concerns, like all such teams, are mainly commercial, relinquish primary responsibility for tackling the disaster. Were there a responsible public authority, motivated by environmental and other concerns unconnected to the value of ships, it might insist on conducting rescues differently. It does not prejudge this inquiry nor suggest impropriety in this case to point out that the interests of guillemots, seals and the tourist industry may be given too little weight.
Salvagers cannot but be more interested in rescuing a multi-million-pound tanker than in avoiding the loss of a few hundred thousand pounds worth of oil. Indeed, the spillage of large quantities of crude clearly improves buoyancy and may help refloat a tanker. There is a conflict between the interests of salvagers and those of the wider community.
When the country's busiest oil terminal is located in one of Europe's finest wildlife sanctuaries, issues other than readily reckoned cost come into play. To protect the coast, and the industries and wildlife which depend upon it, the Department of Transport should consider insisting upon the use of safer, double-hulled tankers at Milford Haven.
The Government also needs to reform the haphazard procedures which can turn marine accidents into catastrophes. When the captain of a grounded tanker picks up his radio-phone to report the accident, the ship's owner should not be the obvious person to contact. After all, when our home is burning down, it is not our landlord whom we call, but the fire brigade.
*"Sea Empress" - The Pilot: Solicitors acting for the pilot (unnamed) controlling the "Sea Empress" when it ran aground, deny rumours concerning the consumption of alcohol and threaten libel proceedings if they are published. Please refer any proposed publication to the legal department.
