Scientists warn of catastrophic oil spill from abandoned ship in Red Sea
Scientists have called for action to remove the oil from an abandoned taker in the Red Sea that holds approximately one million barrels of oil — four times the amount contained in the Exxon Valdez tanker which had a disastrous environmental oil spill in 1989.
According to the analysis, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, the tanker named Safer is a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) abandoned for years in the Red Sea.
“The time is now to prevent a potential devastation to the region’s waters and the livelihoods and health of millions of people living in half a dozen countries along the Red Sea’s coast,” said co-author Karine Kleinhaus, Associate Professor of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University in the US.
