South Korea's largest oil spill reached part of the country's scenic and environmentally sensitive western shore today, as the Coast Guard battled high waves and strong winds to keep more oil from washing up on beaches.
An environmentalist shows a mallard covered in fuel oil from the spill from a Hong-Kong-registered oil tanker near Mallipo, South Korea
Hundreds of troops, police and residents used buckets to remove dense crude from Mallipo - one of South Korea's best-known beaches - as dark sea water crashed ashore. More of the spill is expected to hit the area tomorrow.
The region is popular for its scenic beaches and is the site of fish farms and a national maritime park. It is an important rest stop for migrating birds, including snipe, mallards and great crested grebes.
Mallipo, about 95 miles south-west of Seoul, is one of the hardest-hit areas from the oil spill, which occurred yesterday when a crane-carrying barge hit a Hong Kong-resgistered supertanker, punching holes and causing it to release 66,000 barrels (2.7 million gallons) of oil into the ocean.
The Hebei Spiritwas about eight kilometres outside the port, waiting to unload its cargo of some 260,000 tonnes of crude oil from the Middle East, when it was struck by the barge.
The spill was the country's largest, involving twice as much oil as the worst previous spill in 1995. The accident occurred about seven miles off Mallipo.
The oil reached shore this morning, contaminating about four miles of coastline. Strong winds and prevailing currents spread the oil slick overnight to an area about a mile wide and 10 miles in length.
The size of the leak reported by the authorities would be about one-fourth that of the 260,000 barrels, or 11 million gallons, of oil spilled into Alaska's Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdezin 1989.