Stricken Tanker Gushing Oil Off Scotland

A 700-foot tanker carrying almost 25 million gallons of oil ran aground and was breaking up in the Shetland Islands on Tuesday, creating a potentially major environmental disaster in an internationally known wildlife area.

The single-hulled ship, the Liberian-registered Braer, was carrying almost double the amount of crude that was aboard the Exxon Valdez when it ran aground in Alaska in 1989.

Attempts to contain the oil gushing from the Braer were thwarted by hurricane-force winds blasting the Shetlands, off northern Scotland between the North Sea and the Atlantic. The British coast guard feared that the tanker would be destroyed on the rocks during the long northern night, spilling its entire cargo into the sea.

Salvage teams could do little with the tanker, which lost power during a storm while traveling through the 22-mile channel between Sumburgh Head and Fair Isle on a voyage from Norway to Canada. Its crew was evacuated, and there were no reports of injuries.

But one coast guard duty officer said: “It is a horrendous scene. Thick black oil is pouring out. There is very bad weather.”

While experts awaited daybreak to fully assess the scene, they held out little hope for containing the damage from the Braer, which ran aground on a rocky beach in Quendale Bay and was being battered by the raging storm and enormous breakers.

The prospect of a huge oil spill raised grave fears for wildlife in the Shetlands, an area to which bird lovers from around the globe flock.

Sea ducks winter in the local bays, and the area has been important for sea birds like puffins, long-tailed ducks and great northern divers. Eiders, loons and cormorants also can be found there. And seals, otters, common porpoises and killer whales roam the Shetland-area waters, from which islanders have been pulling salmon that fetch premium prices because they are said to come from such a pristine spot.

“The impact on fish and birds will be less than it would have been if the spill had taken place in the spring,” said Richard Golob, publisher of Golob’s Oil Pollution Bulletin, a Massachusetts-based newsletter on oil pollution prevention and cleanup.

He and others noted that the damage will not be as great because many local birds have already migrated and the fish are not spawning.

But Golob said the spill still will have a “significant effect” on bird and fish populations in the Shetlands.

Not far from the area where the Braer ran aground, there is a crude-oil terminal at Sullom Voe, which services some of Britain’s North Sea oil platforms. Its spill-containment equipment--including planes with sprays to break up oil slicks and corralling booms--was made ready for use once the weather allows.

Some experts noted that the Braer--in contrast to the Exxon Valdez, which went aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989--was carrying a kind of oil that might be less damaging to the coast.

Its cargo was “a light crude, which evaporates more quickly, and this process is helped by the bad weather,” said David Deas, spokesman for the Marine Pollution Control Unit of the British government.

But Faith Yando, editor of the Massachusetts-based Oil Spill Intelligence Report, said the lighter oil is a “mixed blessing” for wildlife.

Heavier oil tends to stick more to birds and weigh them down, while the lighter fuel tends to be more toxic to wildlife when ingested, she said. Birds that become covered with oil die of exposure or are eaten by predators, which then may be poisoned. A bird’s feathers act as insulation, similar to a wet suit; birds soaked in oil either drown because they can’t float or die of hypothermia.

The Berkeley, Calif.-based International Bird Rescue Research Center--which has responded to oil spills in the past--offered Tuesday to assist the Scottish humane society.

Noting that this was the second major European spill in a little more than a month, environmentalists called for tougher regulation of oil tankers. Just last month, a Greek tanker, the Aegean Sea, ran aground near La Coruna harbor in northwestern Spain during a storm, caught fire and spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude along the coastal fishing area.

On Tuesday, concerns were raised about the grounded ship’s structure--that the Braer, managed by B & H Ship Management of New York and built in 1975, had only a single hull rather than the more damage-resistant double hull.

“This is a potential major disaster for wildlife,” said Nancy Harrison, an officer with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “Questions must be asked why a single-hulled tanker, which is banned around sensitive coastlines in other countries, is allowed to be in one of Britain’s most vulnerable sites for marine wildlife.”

The Oil Pollution Act, signed by President Bush in 1990, requires all new U.S. tankers carrying oil to be double-hulled. Single-hulled vessels must be retrofitted or phased out over time, publisher Golob said.

As for the Braer, it was moving westward through the storm when its fuel tanks were contaminated by seawater, its crew reported. The ship lost power Tuesday morning and was driven by winds and currents toward the rocky coast.

A British rescue helicopter pulled the 34-member Greek, Philippine and Polish crew from the ship. Five crew members and two officers from the Sullom Voe terminal later were lowered back onto the ship by helicopter to try to attach a line to a nearby tug, the Sirius Star. Before a line could be secured, the tanker went aground, and the coast guard ordered the crew and military personnel removed.

Dave Simpson, a Royal Air Force squadron leader and the helicopter pilot who hovered above the Braer, said the tanker’s unidentified skipper wanted to stay aboard to try to keep his ship from grounding. “He didn’t want to leave,” Simpson said, “but the sea was getting rougher and rougher . . . so in the end he had no choice.”

The Shetlands have 22,500 inhabitants, sparsely spread over islands that lie north of the Orkney Islands and are the most northerly part of the British Isles.

The famous Shetland and Fair Isle knitwear is exported worldwide and is produced by cottage workers.

The islands are known for the diminutive Shetland ponies.

Tuohy reported from London, and Dolan reported from Los Angeles.

Shetland Islands Oil Spill (Southland Edition, A7)

A tanker carrying nearly twice as much oil as spilled from the Exxon Valdez ran aground off northern Scotland, threatening bird-nesting grounds in the Shetland Islands. Where: On the rugged coastline of the Bay of Quendale, 180 miles north of Aberdeen.

Weather: Near hurricane-force winds--more than 70 miles per hour--created waves of more than 22 feet.

Environmental damage: The Shetlands group in the North Sea is sparsely populated but abounds with birds, seals and fish. The spill was in open water.

The tanker: Liberian-registered tanker Braer sustained holes in the stern and bow. There was a crew of 34 on the 89,700-ton ship.

Containment efforts: High winds and heavy seas hampered efforts to save the ship and contain spilled oil.

*

MEASURED AGAINST OTHER SPILLS

Here is how the Shetlands spill compares to other major accidents:

Millions of Date Location gallons spilled Jan. 26 1991 Off Kuwaiti coast* 240 June 3, 1979 Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico 140 Feb. 4, 1983 Nowruz Field, Arabian Gulf 80 Aug. 6, 1983 Cape Town, South Africa 79 Jan. 5, 1993 Shetlands** 25 March 24, 1989 Alaska (Exxon Valdez) 11

* Includes intentional damage from Gulf War

** Tanker carried 25 million gallons. Exact amount spilled is still being determined.

In shipping, oil normally is measured by ton. A ton of crude oil is roughly equal to 300 gallons, but the exact number of gallons varies according to the type of oil.

Source: Oil Spill Intelligence Report, Times wire reports