Help urged for fishermen affected by oil spill
A group of non-governmental organisations has issued an open letter calling on the Ministry of Agriculture to step up efforts to assist Hebei scallop fishermen in their fight for compensation from US petrochemicals company ConocoPhillips China over the Bohai Sea oil spill.
'The shallow sea areas and shorelines of Laoting county and Changli county in Hebei have suffered the most serious pollution from this oil spill, with widespread deaths of scallops and other living organisms having occurred,' the letter states. 'What is more the timing of the scallop deaths coincides with the occurrence of the oil spillages at Penglai 19-3 oilfield.'
The letter- signed by 22 NGOs, including mainland groups Friends of Nature, the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs and the Centre for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims- calls on the ministry to increase monitoring of the impact of the spill and to provide more support for fish farmers in the region. It also demands greater transparency from departments handling the disaster.
Economic losses of the fishermen are believed to be between 150 million and 170 million yuan, Xinhua reported, citing the Laoting County Fishery Association.
Oil leaks at two oil platforms in the Penglai 19-3 field- owned by ConocoPhillips China and state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation- started in June but were not publicly reported until last month.
The letter coincided this week with news that the national maritime watchdog has began proceedings to take ConocoPhillips China to court. The State Oceanic Administration announced that it was hiring several law firms to handle the suit.
Xia Jun, the lawyer who drafted the NGO letter, said he had been in close contact with fish farmers in the affected area. Although the agriculture ministry had sent experts to investigate in Laoting, fish farmers in Changli had yet to be contacted.
'The situation in Changli county is as bad as Laoting, but if anything, the scope of the damage is even greater,' he said. 'In Laoting, around 500 families have been affected, but the results of our informal surveys show that there are over 1,000 affected households in Changli.
'Most of these fish farmers have lost at least 50 per cent of their stock. In many cases upwards of 70 per cent or even 80 per cent of their scallops have died. Without help from the Ministry of Agriculture, they do not have the resources to fight for their rights.'
Xia had suggested to farmers that they could sue the ministry directly if they did not receive appropriate assistance.
'A number of the fishermen were quite interested in the idea,' he said.
ConocoPhillips said yesterday that it 'sincerely regrets the incidents in Bohai Bay and accepts its responsibilities'.
'Any release of oil, no matter how small, is too great, and we will take all appropriate steps to contain and clean up these releases and prevent them from recurring,' Georg Storaker, president of ConocoPhillips China, said.
