2001 : AMORGOS, TAIWAN

Whilst en-route from India to North China, the bulk carrier AMORGOS, laden with 60,000 tonnes of iron ore, suffered engine failure and grounded on rocks off the southern tip of Taiwan the 13th of January 2001. An estimated 1000 tonnes of the fuel oil on board at the time of the grounding has since spilt into the sea. Measures to mitigate the loss of oil from the vessel were taken by Smit Tak, an international salvage firm engaged by the vessel's owner. They completed oil removal operations on 4th February.

Approximately 4-5km of shoreline within the Kenting National Park has been oiled to varying degrees. The Kenting National Park is a scenic and ecologically important area that draws thousands of tourists. It is well known for its limestone caves, natural monsoon forests and coastal tropical rainforest and supports an estimated 2,200 different plant species, some of which are rare and unusual. Approximately 200 bird species also inhabit or migrate through the park.

Much of the affected shoreline consists of jagged fossilised coral rock, pitted with channels. The first kilometre north of the Oluanpi headland is most heavily affected but some channels further away also contain substantial amounts of oil. Of the 1000 tonnes or so that has been spilt, some will have been lost through dispersion and evaporation, but much has reached the shoreline. The oil has now emulsified, due to the constant wave/water mixing, increasing the overall quantity of material to be recovered.

Shoreline clean-up operations began on 25th January. 37 labourers and supervisors were initially deployed, though this number was increased to 150 by the beginning of February. Cleaning consists of the manual collection of thick pools of oil within the rock channels. The shore terrain is very rough and it has not been possible to use machinery directly along the rock areas. The collected oil has therefore been moved in buckets along a human chain to a staging area of storage tanks at the back of the shore amongst the rocky cliffs. The oil has then been transferred to a storage site at the top of the cliffs using screw pumps and a network of PVC piping. It will ultimately be removed to the China Petroleum Corporation's facilities at Kaoshiung for final disposal.

The local workforce has now been joined by several hundred soldiers, who arrived on-site on 11th February to assist with the manual clean-up operation. On 13th February some 62 tonnes of oily waste were collected, bringing the total to some 300 tonnes as at 14th February.

The 21st of March 2001, arrival of society LE FLOCH DEPOLLUTION. Widening of the existing footbridge to bring the high pressure washers and construction of little platforms to install the machines and the water tanks. Construction of a new footbridge on another site. Cleaning of the rocks with the high pressure washers with training of the local manpower to make correct use of the machines. Cleaning of the sand with the flushing gun with also training of the local manpower. For the recovering of the effluents, nets have been putted and construction of retention basins. Pom pom and landing net have been also used for the recovering. From the 21st of March and the 1st of June 2001, 1 682 m3 of garbage and 20 150 litres of oil have been collected. In average 300 people per day of all status have worked with 12 pumps and 9 high pressure washers.