MV ''Apollo Sea'' was a Chinese-owned, Panamanian-registered

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially naval architecture, designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo—such as Grain trade, grain, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement—in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrie ...

which sank near

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in June 1994. Leaking oil from the sunken vessel caused a major environmental disaster which resulted in the death of thousands of seabirds, including endangered

African penguin The African penguin (''Spheniscus demersus''), also known as Cape penguin or South African penguin, is a species of penguin confined to southern African waters. It is the only penguin found in the Old World. Like all penguins, it is flightless, ...

s. All of the ship's 36 crew members died in the sinking, which apparently occurred so quickly that no general distress signals were given. The first public indication that the ship had sunk was the appearance of penguins covered with oil. The source of the slick was initially believed to be the wreck of the supertanker ''Castillo de Bellver'', but this theory was disproven and the slick was instead traced to the wreck of the ''Apollo Sea''. The vessel had been loaded with 2,400 tonnes (2,700 cubic metres) of

heavy fuel oil Heavy fuel oil (HFO) is a category of fuel oils of a tar-like consistency. Also known as bunker fuel, or residual fuel oil, HFO is the result or remnant from the distillation and cracking process of petroleum. For this reason, HFO contains seve ...

when she left port four hours before she sank. Later it was revealed that an automated distress signal had been sent directly to the owners via satellite from the approximate location of the oil spill, and the owners eventually admitted the loss of the vessel and accepted responsibility for the spill.

Environmental impact

Gale-force winds hampered attempts to protect Cape Town from the emerging oil slick, and city beaches were streaked with oil. The oil affected the breeding grounds of the endangered

Dassen Island Dassen Island is an uninhabited South African island in the Atlantic Ocean. It is situated about west of Yzerfontein and north of Cape Town. The flat and low-lying island measures about long northwest–southeast and wide, with an area of . ...

. Attempts were made to evacuate penguins to the mainland, but efforts were impeded by the rough weather. 10,000 penguins were collected and cleaned. Of those, approximately 5,000 survived. Six years later, the region's seabird rookeries were threatened by a similar incident; the MV ''Treasure'' oil spill.

References

{{1994 shipwrecks Bulk carriers Maritime incidents in 1994 Merchant ships of China Oil spills in South Africa Ships built in Japan Ships lost with all hands Ships of CP Ships Shipwrecks of the South African Atlantic coast

Environmental impact

See also

References