By IANS,
Bhubaneswar: Microbes are being used to clear an oil spill caused by a ship that sank last month off the Paradip port in Orissa, a senior port official said Friday.
“The microbes are a kind of bacteria which live on oil. The microbes will clean up the spilled oil on the coast, as well as in the water. The work has started from today (Friday)” the official told IANS.
“On our request, The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) sent us the microbes.”
The vessel, under a Mongolian flag, ran aground Sep 9 in the harbour area off the port in Jagatsinghpur district, some 100 km from here, with 924 tonnes of furnace oil and about 25,000 tonnes of iron ore fines.
Twenty-seven crew members were on board. All but a Ukrainian engineer, whose body was found 10 days later, were rescued.
The port authorities said that small quantities of oil have started oozing out of the ship since Sep 21, although out of the 924 tonnes of oil, 900 tonnes are inside a double-bottom tank fully secured.
The accident spot is close to the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, one of the world’s few remaining nesting sites for the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles.