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Reclamation claims marine life
Volume26/Number 2/February 1993 coastal area planning and construction projects which have gained both environmental and social benefits. It is reported that the new national environmental pollution monitoring programme will come into force in 1993 following the guidelines of consolidation, expansion and raising standards, aiming to improve the national network and to develop multidirectional and multimedia working methods. (For more information about the new monitoring programme, contact PO Box 303, Dalian, China.) FAN ZHHIE
ability during a slack tide on an August summer night, claimed much marine life overnight. The sewage treatment plant on Stonecutters' Island was commissioned 8 days after the channel had been sealed off, but government officials apparently did not realize that is might take several weeks at least before the plant would become functional. This lack of coordination between the blockage of the channel and the operation of the sewage treatment plant then took a further heavy toll on the marine life--resulting in a dramatic and massive kill, another avoidable tragedy. SY LEE
Reclamation Claims Marine Life
News-in-Brief
Hong Kong's politically trouble-laden Port and Airport Development Strategy (PADS) was further perturbed recently by large scale marine mortality caused by inappropriate management of a component reclamation project. The Western Kowloon Reclamation project is an integral part of proposed modifications of the coastline of the already polluted Victoria Harbour. The reclamation project will effectively 'eliminate' from Victoria Harbour one marine pollution black spot, the Yaumatei typhoon shelter, where an extensive area of land will be reclaimed. The reclamation also turned Stonecutters' Island in Victoria Harbour into part of the Kowloon peninsula by sealing off the channel, some 1 km wide, on the northern edge of the island. Eleven days after Stonecutters' ceased to be an island, thousands of dead fish, crustaceans and other marine life despoiled the water and shores of the enclosed bay created by the reclamation. The island, as a military area, has for many years been a sanctuary for marine life and birds in urbanization-fringed Victoria Harbour. The lack of disturbance allowed intertidal fauna such as limpets and chitons to grow to sizes many times larger than their counterparts elsewhere in the Harbour, and herons and black kites have nested and foraged unwarily on and around the island. Apparently, the Government was advised that sealing off the channel would not seriously harm the environment. The new isthmus, however, stopped the dilution and dispersal of much of the daily discharge of 288 000 tonnes of raw sewage by currents through the narrow channel. This, added to the low dissolved oxygen avail-
Panama Following the outcry over Japanese plutonium carrier Akatsuki Maru's transit of the Panama Canal, Greenpeace accused Japan of shipping nuclear fuel via the Panama Canal against the express wishes of the Caribbean states and President of Panama. The British ship Pacific Swan had also recently transited the Panama Canal en route from Japan carrying 60 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel. Other British ships carrying nuclear waste are to transit the canal soon, apparently with the full support of the President of Panama.
Spain Owners of the Maltese MV Fidelity were fined three times for throwing sewage into port waters at Santos in December. The ship also leaked oil whilst berthed loading a cargo of sugar. The three fines were imposed by the Port Captaincy, City Hall and State Health Department. The ship will not be detained since the sewage treatment machinery which was defective has been repaired.
USA An oil pipeline ruptured in Oregon, Ohio, spilling an estimated 32 000 gallons of petrol into Otter Creek according to a report by the United States Coast Guard Marine Safety Office. Vacuum trucks and booms were used to clean up the spill. The only reported casualties were six musk rats.
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ability during a slack tide on an August summer night, claimed much marine life overnight. The sewage treatment plant on Stonecutters' Island was commissioned 8 days after the channel had been sealed off, but government officials apparently did not realize that is might take several weeks at least before the plant would become functional. This lack of coordination between the blockage of the channel and the operation of the sewage treatment plant then took a further heavy toll on the marine life--resulting in a dramatic and massive kill, another avoidable tragedy. SY LEE
Reclamation Claims Marine Life
News-in-Brief
Hong Kong's politically trouble-laden Port and Airport Development Strategy (PADS) was further perturbed recently by large scale marine mortality caused by inappropriate management of a component reclamation project. The Western Kowloon Reclamation project is an integral part of proposed modifications of the coastline of the already polluted Victoria Harbour. The reclamation project will effectively 'eliminate' from Victoria Harbour one marine pollution black spot, the Yaumatei typhoon shelter, where an extensive area of land will be reclaimed. The reclamation also turned Stonecutters' Island in Victoria Harbour into part of the Kowloon peninsula by sealing off the channel, some 1 km wide, on the northern edge of the island. Eleven days after Stonecutters' ceased to be an island, thousands of dead fish, crustaceans and other marine life despoiled the water and shores of the enclosed bay created by the reclamation. The island, as a military area, has for many years been a sanctuary for marine life and birds in urbanization-fringed Victoria Harbour. The lack of disturbance allowed intertidal fauna such as limpets and chitons to grow to sizes many times larger than their counterparts elsewhere in the Harbour, and herons and black kites have nested and foraged unwarily on and around the island. Apparently, the Government was advised that sealing off the channel would not seriously harm the environment. The new isthmus, however, stopped the dilution and dispersal of much of the daily discharge of 288 000 tonnes of raw sewage by currents through the narrow channel. This, added to the low dissolved oxygen avail-
Panama Following the outcry over Japanese plutonium carrier Akatsuki Maru's transit of the Panama Canal, Greenpeace accused Japan of shipping nuclear fuel via the Panama Canal against the express wishes of the Caribbean states and President of Panama. The British ship Pacific Swan had also recently transited the Panama Canal en route from Japan carrying 60 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel. Other British ships carrying nuclear waste are to transit the canal soon, apparently with the full support of the President of Panama.
Spain Owners of the Maltese MV Fidelity were fined three times for throwing sewage into port waters at Santos in December. The ship also leaked oil whilst berthed loading a cargo of sugar. The three fines were imposed by the Port Captaincy, City Hall and State Health Department. The ship will not be detained since the sewage treatment machinery which was defective has been repaired.
USA An oil pipeline ruptured in Oregon, Ohio, spilling an estimated 32 000 gallons of petrol into Otter Creek according to a report by the United States Coast Guard Marine Safety Office. Vacuum trucks and booms were used to clean up the spill. The only reported casualties were six musk rats.
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