Massive Oil Tanker Spill Threatens Morocco Coast

The government said Sunday that Morocco faces environmental catastrophe from an oil slick that may rival the Exxon Valdez crude oil spill in Alaska.

An Interior Ministry statement said the slick from the stricken Iranian supertanker Kharg 5 covers about 60,000 acres off its Atlantic coast and threatens a “catastrophe of tragic dimensions” if it reaches shore.

According to Moroccan port authorities, at least 27,000 tons of oil, equivalent to about 197,000 barrels, have leaked so far from the Kharg 5, drifting unmanned since fire broke out on board Dec. 19.

The Exxon Valdez spilled nearly 29,000 tons when it ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound last March, fouling more than 1,000 miles of shoreline in the worst such accident in U.S. history.

Port authorities said oil is still leaking from the 284,000-ton cargo, forming a 175-mile slick about 17 miles offshore, stretching from Mehidya, north of Rabat, to Mohammedia to the south. They said southwesterly winds are blowing toward the coast.

The Interior Ministry statement, carried by Moroccan radio and monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp., said Morocco’s entire Atlantic coastline is at risk.

Shipping sources said ocean currents are pushing the vessel, now due west of Morocco’s rich sardine fishing grounds around Safi, south towards the Canary Islands.

The official news agency MAP said Morocco has appealed for international help to have the tanker towed at least 300 miles further from its coast.

The 32-member crew abandoned the tanker after an explosion ripped through the ship’s hull as it sailed 400 miles north of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Crew members were picked up by a Soviet freighter. MAP said the tanker is no longer burning.

In Paris, French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau said that as much as 70,000 tons of oil could have spilled and damage to the environment could be even greater than that caused by the Exxon Valdez.

“We must do something, we must send experts . . . this is a disaster for Morocco,” he told French television, adding that the jobs of 40,000 fishermen were at risk.

“An ecological catastrophe of the first magnitude happened on Dec. 19 and it is only on Dec. 31 that people begin to take notice,” he said.