The Before, After and Why of a Shipwreck in the English Channel
On the morning of 18 March 2018, the Belgian trawler Deborah (photo n°1) goes fishing in the Channel shipping lane, followed by more than 70,000 merchant ships and 500 million tonnes of hazardous cargos each year, a little as if a collector of greasy papers and mushrooms was working day and night on a motorway or at the edge of the emergency strip.
Risks of Oil Spill in the North Sea
The death and disappearance of 11 sailors from the Baltic Ace car-carrier after colliding with the container ship Corvus J in the North Sea will be followed by an oil spill. After the tragic human casualties will follow environmental damage. The Baltic Ace wreck contains several tons of propulsion fuel oil and diesel oil. Each of the 1417 cars transported contain around 5 liters of fuel.
A similar accident that happened 10 years ago off Dunkirk had provoked oil sheens around the wreck, 2 days after the sinking of the Tricolor car-carrier. Two months later the assessment of the oiled birds was 5,200 in the north of France, 12,000 in Belgium, and 2,000 in the Netherlands. The coasts of Belgium, Flanders, Calaisis, Boulonnais, the Somme Bay and Normandy have been polluted by hydrocarbons released by the wreck. The nuclear plants in Penly in Normandy and in Gravelines in the north of France have been placed on alert because of the risk of hydrocarbons arriving in the cooling waters.
Today, it would be prudent if the Borssele nuclear plant in the Netherlands adopted the same procedures.
