麻豆约拍

The environmental damage caused by an explosion on an Iranian oil tanker in the East China sea is spreading. The ship has now sunk - and a ten mile wide oil slick has formed - fires are burning across the surface sending plumes of smoke into the sky.

The Sanchi vessel, was carrying 136 thousand tonnes - almost one million barrels - of condensate, a light crude oil. It's thought to be the biggest tanker spill since 1991, when 260 thousand tonnes of oil leaked off the Angolan coast. A clean-up effort on the sea's surface has begun to try and limit harm to the marine ecosystem. Richard Steiner is an Oil Spill Environmental Specialist based in Anchorage, Alaska, and he says that while the fuel cannot probably be recovered, wildlife can be kept from the "plume" of toxic condensate.