Marine and Fisheries 

Oil spill from sunken freighter contaminates popular bathing beach in southern Taiwan

tourists affected by oil spill on beach
Phillip Charlier 1 Comment , , , ,

Beachgoers at Cijin Beach in Kaohsiung City yesterday were affected by an oil slick suspected to have come from a container ship that sank off the coast more than one month ago.

Kaohsiung City Councilor Lina Chen was hosting an event promoting the wearing of lifejackets while beach bathing at around 3:00 pm when participants began reporting that they were affected by oil in the water and on the sand. Chen informed the Kaohsiung City Tourism Bureau and the Maritime Affairs Division at around 4:30 pm.

beachgoer's foot covered in oil

Chen criticized the tourism bureau for not taking immediate action, saying that people were not ordered off the beach until 5:30 pm. The lifejacket event hosts stayed until 7:00 pm to help people wash oil off their bodies.

According to preliminary investigations by the Marine Protection Agency, and port authorities, the oil pollution was caused by the rupture of a pipe during underwater oil removal operations on the sunken container ship ANGEL, which sank off the coast near the port of Kaohsiung July 21.

An inspection today found that around 100 meters of beach was affected by the spill. The section of beach was cordoned off and clean up operations were expected to be completed by this afternoon.

officials inspect beach after oil spill
Representatives of various agencies inspect Cijin Beach this morning. Picture: Taiwan Port Corporation.
Taiwan English News is an independent publication with no corporate funding. If you found this article informative, and would like to support my work, please buy me a coffee or support me on Patreon. Subscribe to Taiwan English News for free to receive the latest news via email. Advertising queries are welcome. Share, like, comment below.

One thought on “Oil spill from sunken freighter contaminates popular bathing beach in southern Taiwan”

  • John Huston
    August 27, 2023 at 2:58 pm
    Permalink

    Well now….standing almost in the middle of the top picture for this article is a young woman. She has a mobile phone obviously tucked into her bikini bathing suit. It may be a Smart Phone, but putting it there is NOT smart. Hey, maybe she doesn’t mind having a possible future plagued by infertility, premature or abnormal birth, and of course a whole raft of cancers, ranging from cervical to uterine and all that. Sigh….when will they EVer…..?

    Reply

Comment and discuss this story: While all opinions are welcome, comments will not be approved if they contain inflammatory speech.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.