Mystery oil slick spreads to Vietnam's far south
HANOI - An oil slick that first soiled Vietnam's central coast two months ago has spread to the country's far south, hitting fisheries and aquaculture, officials and state media said Tuesday.
Government officials from the environment, defence and foreign ministries and the state-run oil company held a meeting Monday to assess the cause of the pollution and how to deal with it, the Vietnam News Agency said.
Authorities have not determined whether the oil was discharged by a passing tanker or leaked from an offshore oil rig in the South China Sea.
The blobs of oil that first appeared on Vietnam's central coast in late January, driving tourists off the famed China Beach, have now blackened beaches as far south as the resort of Vung Tau and the far-southern Ca Mau peninsula.
Thousands of volunteers have scraped hundreds of tons of oil mixed with sand off beaches and rocky seashores in recent weeks, while the slick has killed marine life and damaged coastal shrimp and clam farms.
"The source of the oil is still unknown, but local fishermen have reported catching marine products dirtied with oil," said a Tien Giang province environment department official. "We have sent teams of youth volunteers to the coastal Go Cong district to collect the oil."
The Vietnam News Agency said the National Search and Rescue Committee oversaw Monday's meeting, which agreed to send an expert team to Vung Tau to take samples and compare them with those taken elsewhere along the coast.
Agence France Presse - March 20, 2007.
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