Sea Empress

The Sea Empress was the name of a single hull oil tanker that became infamous in February 1996 for the devastation it caused to the coastline of south-west Wales when the ship ran aground.

tatistics

* Vessel name: "Sea Empress"
* Home port: Monrovia, Liberia
* Owners: Alegrete Shipping Co, Inc., Monrovia
* Construction: 1993 (delivered)
* Country of construction: Spain
* Length overall: 274.3 meters (899.93 ft)
* Beam: 43.2 meters (141.73 ft)
* Draft: 17.02 meters (55.84 ft) loaded
* Displacement: 147,273 tonnes deadweight (162,340 tons US)
* Capacity: 164,156 cubic meters (1,032,510 barrels)
* Propulsion: direct-drive diesel, single propeller
* Engine rating: 13,475 kW (18,061.96 horsepower)
* Classification society: Det Norske Veritas [ web cite | url=http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/dot/seaemp/semp1.htm | title="Sea Empress Report" | publisher="Marine Accident Investigation Board" | date=1997-07-01 | accessdate=2007-04-02 ]

Grounding

On the evening of 15 February, 1996 the Sea Empress was entering the mouth of the Cleddau Estuary on her way into Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire to deposit its oil cargo at the Texaco oil refinery. Sailing against the outgoing tide, at 20:07 UTC the ship was pushed off its course by the current, and hit rocks in the middle of the channel, which punctured her starboard hull causing oil to pour out into the bay. [ Tugs raced to the rescue,but she became detached several more times from them, and was also hit hard by a storm, whilst still stranded. This pushed her back onto the rocks several times and more oil continued to leak, now at a faster rate. In the end she lost 72,000 tons of crude oil. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/seaempress/pages/intro.shtml BBC News: Sea Empress - The first few minutes...] ]

hort-term effects

Over the first few days of the disaster an estimated 73,000 tonnes out of the ship's 130,000 tonne cargo of North Sea crude oil spilt onto the surrounding coast, causing a great deal of environmental and aesthetic damage to the coastline and its marine life and wildlife in an area which lies within the protection of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

Birds

The most visible effect of the spill was seen in the large number of oil covered birds that were shown on television and in newspapers. [http://www.swan.ac.uk/empress/birds/birds.htm Swansea University: Sea Empress Oil Spil - Birds] ] Amongst the birds affected were guillemots, razorbills and the worst affected bird, the Common Scoter duck. 83% of the birds affected were Common Scoter, and it is estimated that 5000 of the 15000 population in the area were killed. [http://www.ccw.gov.uk/generalinfo/index.cfm?Action=View&RID=64&subject=Marine Countryside Council for Wales: Sea Empress Report] ] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/253856.stm BBC News:Assessing the oil spill impact] ] The RSPB set up a temporary bird hospital in Milford Haven to try and treat as many birds as possible. This centre is now a storage area but in the aftermath of the Sea Empress disaster it became a hive of activity where many birds were showered and cleaned as best as possible. Unfortuneatly the life expectancy of a cleaned bird that was oiled once it was let back into the sea was a very short 9 days. Members of the public also helped rescue the birds. It was later revealed in a study by the British Trust for Ornithology that the average survival time for a rescued oiled bird was seven days.

Rare Starfish in Danger

A very tiny starfish the smallest in Britain and unique to the Pembrokeshire coastline was threatened with extinction with the disastrous impact on the coastline. Before the disaster there were 250 of the species around the coastline found in a survey very close to the disaster. After the Sea Empress ran aground there were 5 found. The discoverer of the species saved from the extinction by taking a brooding starfish (these particular starfish brood like chickens) and bred them repeatedly now there are around 1000 of the starfish.

eals

Although the Sea Empress ran aground near to a breeding area for the grey seal, the time of year meant that only a minority of seals were in the area. Although some seals showed signs of oil on their coats, there is no record of a seal dying as a result of the spill.

Beaches

200 kilometres of coastline was covered in crude oil.

Long-term effects

The total cost of the cleanup operation was approximately £60 million [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/walesonair/database/empress.shtml BBC Wales On Air:Sea Empress] ]

It took almost five years for the coastline to be fully cleaned up and restored by the Pembrokeshire Council and wildlife conservationalists.

The oil tanker was recovered and was subsequently renamed continuing to operate until 2004. There was much speculation in the media at the time over the fate and unreliability of old single hull tankers which had been the cause of another disaster in Scotland just a year earlier

References

See also

* Oil tanker
* Supertanker

External links

* [http://www.pembrokeshiretv.com/content/templates/v6-article.asp?articleid=1473&zoneid=32 The Sea Empress: A Diary Of Events] pembrokeshiretv.com
* [http://supertankers.topcities.com/id134.htm Sea Empress tanker photos]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4701790.stm BBC News: 10 years on]