Notices of oil spills on the world ocean
While the French Navy is sealing up cracks on the forepart of the Tanio wreck (1980) off Brittany, oil spills or oil spill risks are multiplying. The Covid-19 pandemic is involved in this resurgence. The crews are no longer relieved. Confined to their workplaces, they are overworked, cut off from the world and depressed. The Indian captain of the Wakashio, which ran aground on Mauritius, had been on board for a year and other crew members for 9 months. The minimal maintenance of merchant ships is also delayed. Political circumstances are other aggravating factors, as in the example of FSO (Floating Storage and Offloading) units which in peacetime “feed” tankers that have come empty from all over the world.
