Two cargo ships collided in the Mediterranean Sea near the island of Corsica on Sunday, causing an oil spill, coastal authorities said.
The Ulysse, operated by the Tunisian operator CTN, ran into the Cyprus-based CLS Virgina while it was anchored about 30 kilometres (20 miles) off the northern tip of the island at around 7:30 a.m. local time, the regional naval authority said in a statement.
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No one was injured but "the collision caused considerable damage, with an opening several meters long in the CLS Virginia's hull," the statement said.
The spill created a trail of pollution 4 kilometers long and several hundred meters wide, heading away from Corsica to the northwest, toward the French and Italian mainland, the statement continued.
'Propulsion fuel'
France's regional maritime authority said CLS Virginia was leaking "propulsion fuel" without providing further details.
The Tunisian ship "was maybe going too fast compared to its ability to react," the source told AFP.
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According to the CTN's published shipping schedule, the Ulysse was traveling from Genoa in Italy to the Tunisian port at Rades near Tunis.
A tugboat has been sent to the scene and the French navy has also provided a vessel specialized in containing and cleaning up pollution spills.
Italy has also offered its assistance as part of the RamogePol accord between France, Italy and Monaco to jointly intervene in cases of maritime pollution.
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10 years of shipping through the frozen north
Let there be sea
Once, only explorers in search of adventure or scientific discovery braved the icy heart of the Arctic. But the ice is vanishing. August 29, 2008 marked a turning point: For the first time, merchant ships could navigate both the Northeast Passage and Northwest Passage, without icebreakers. This ship-friendly period in summer has been getting longer and longer ever since.
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10 years of shipping through the frozen north
Shortcut from the Atlantic to the Pacific
The 6,500-kilometer-long (4,000-mile) Northeast Passage leads from Asia, past Russia and Norway, and connects the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean. The slightly shorter Northwest Passage runs past Canada toward New York. Both routes cross the Bering Strait and the Arctic Ocean. This is only possible if ice cover does not block the way.
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10 years of shipping through the frozen north
Taking the long road
To get from Rotterdam to Tokyo, ships currently pass India and go through the Suez Canal in Egypt. That's about 6,000 kilometers longer than the route through the Northeast Passage. Ships travel to the US East Coast from Asia via the Pacific and through the Panama Canal. Here, too, taking the Northwest Passage cuts over 4,000 kilometers off the journey.
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10 years of shipping through the frozen north
Arctic pioneers
In 2009, the Bremen-based Beluga shipping company sent two German heavy-lift carriers through the Northeast Passage for the first time. Since then, shipping traffic in the region has increased. Still, Burkhard Lemper of the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics in Bremen says the Arctic Ocean is not (yet) heavily frequented — if only because the route is only open at certain times of year.
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10 years of shipping through the frozen north
Open water
No climate scientist can say for sure how global warming will progress around the North Pole. But, "Everyone agrees the Arctic will be ice-free within the next 30 to 50 years," says sea-ice expert Christian Haas of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany. Researchers describe the Arctic as ice-free when ice cover falls below 1 million square kilometers in summer.
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10 years of shipping through the frozen north
Disturbing the peace
Biologists fear for the unique wildlife in the Arctic as shipping traffic increases. Beluga whales, Greenland whales and walruses, for example, could be a risk, US researchers say in a study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They studied 80 populations of marine mammals and found that more than half are resident along the Northeast or Northwest Passage.
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10 years of shipping through the frozen north
Very special residents
Scientists fear that narwhals in particular could suffer from shipping traffic in the Arctic Ocean. The marine mammals stay close to coastal pack ice. The males are easily recognizable by their helical tusk, which can become up to three meters long. This is a life-size replica in the Ozeanum Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund, Germany.
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10 years of shipping through the frozen north
Antarctica as a model
Researchers and environmentalists are calling for guidelines on Arctic shipping. For example, ships should avoid the whales' main hunting grounds, fit sailing schedules around their migration, and keep noise and speed in check. "This does not yet exist in the Arctic — that's the big difference from Antarctica," Greenpeace biologist Christian Bussau says.
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10 years of shipping through the frozen north
The calm before the storm?
According to Greenpeace expert Bussau, only 50 ships pass through the Northeast and Northwest Passage each year. The German Shipowners' Association says the figure is in the double-digit range. But Bussau says time is of the essence: "In the long run, there will be a lot going on in the Arctic." So far, there are no environmental regulations for shipping in the region.
Author: Brigitte Osterath (hf)
law/aw (AFP, AP, Reuters)
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