By Leo Hickman (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-15 07:11

The Black Sea is the world's most isolated sea. For any ship to reach the expanses of the Atlantic it has to first pass through the 700-m wide Bosphorus Strait, then plot its way through the Dardanelles into the Aegean Sea, before traversing the entire length of the Mediterranean to reach the exit point at Gibraltar.

If a home relied on such a constricted drainage system, it would cause any plumber inspecting it to suck their teeth with alarm.

It is with great sadness, then, that the full scale of the oil tanker spill over the weekend in the Black Sea is now becoming apparent.

We know that a violent storm has already caused one tanker carrying 4,000 tons of fuel oil to split and sink. There are also reports of another developing cracks, as well as two ships carrying sulphur sinking. A dozen or so crew members are reported dead or missing.

This storm may well have led to the serious environmental disaster - a series of potential vulnerabilities conspiring to converge at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

The prevailing attitude we have toward the world's oceans and seas is that they are there for us to exploit - for food, for gas and oil, and for transporting goods. We still largely see them as an infinite resource. Equally, we use them to dump our rubbish and effluent.

This is reflected in the utterly woeful protection we grant them under maritime law aimed at governing shipping. And even where there are sensible regulations in place, many ships sidestep them by sailing under "flags of convenience".

The sight of seabirds dripping in sticky black oil, or sandy beaches cast thick with tar, saddens us all. But we have been witnessing such sights for decades and still little meaningful action is ever taken to protect the seas from our excesses and carelessness.

In the United States, a group called the Blue Campaign Movement is seeking to mobilize citizens - known as seaweed, as opposed to grassroots, activists - across the country to campaign for an American Oceans Act to protect "our public seas".

Surely, an international movement seeking similar, pan-oceanic goals needs to now be mobilized.

The Guardian

(China Daily 11/15/2007 page11)