Philippine Coast Guard Cleans Up Spill From Sunken LCT

November 13 ------ A landing craft sank off the coast of northern Mindanao, releasing fuel into the water and prompting a large-scale response.

At about 0522 hours on Tuesday morning, the master of the landing craft LCT 8 made a phone call to the Philippine Coast Guard and reported that the vessel had partially sunk just off the nickel-mining hub of Carrascal. All 17 crewmembers on board were unharmed, but the vessel had released a visible amount of petroleum.

The PCG dispatched a response team, and they found that the spill had spread along a stretch of about 200 yards of coastline. They estimated the total amount of oil on the water at about 200 gallons - enough to create a visible slick, but also small enough to contain.

An initial response with sorbent pads and a containment boom recovered an estimated 100 gallons of oil-water mixture. Follow-up efforts on Wednesday picked up another 50 gallons of oily water and about 800 pounds of oily solid waste. Monitoring of the scene of the casualty continues.

AIS data provided by Pole Star Global shows that LCT 8 operates domestically on a regular route between Cebu City and Carrascal Bay, at the northeast end of Mindanao, with long gaps between received transmissions. Carrascal's port is a logistics hub for an extensive complex of nickel mines located inland, extracting the raw material for China's stainless steel and electric-battery industries.

Source: maritime-executive.com