CHENNAI: Three days after two ships collided near Ennore, the oil spill has spread up to Neelankarai, over 20-km from Ennore.
The spill has also polluted the mouths of Cooum and Adyar rivers.
The green algal bloom on Adyar river has now taken a shade of dark grey as the oil spill, which has spread up to Tiruvanmyur beach, has also entered the rivers.
If the accumulated area of oil layer expands, it could prevent sunlight and oxygen from entering the river and its bed suffocating the ecosystem underneath.
The mouth of Cooum river situated near the Coast Guard office, however has sand dunes along either sides that has absorbed part of the oil that has floated into the river.
While the mouth of the rivers are in need of an immediate clean up, the situation of the coast is a little more complex. The shore is lined with thick black furnace oil that has deposited as thick-gooey layers in some places and as splatters in others.
Along with spills, the usual coconut shells, plastic bottles, slippers and thermocole arrived black in colour. While inanimate objects are coated in oil, living organisms are not spared.
Has the spill affected the marine ecosystem?
A pregnant turtle that is over three-feet-long was spotted on Tiruvanmyur beach with oil stains on its back and a ruptured yolk sac under it.
The animal was found bleeding profusely from different parts of the body. The turtle wasn’t the only animal that was sick. Oil-stained sting rays, crabs and other marine animals got deposited on the shore too.
Volunteers who rescue injured turtles, however, believe that the dead turtles found on the coast had not died because of the spill, but because of drowning or a collision with boat propellers.
“However, their nesting would be affected badly in the next few days as the shoreline is filled with oil and the turtles may not have a conducive habitat for nesting till the sand is cleaned up,” said Shravan Kumar, a volunteer.
While deep sea animals may not have been affected by the spill, the impact on the marine ecosystem near the coast is not estimated yet. Crabs and mussels that usually crawl all along the sands have been spotted only sporadically.
The oil-sand mixture from the spill has embedded itself on the sands as a sticky sludge. Curious on-lookers who walked up to investigate the extent of spill themselves returned with irritation on their feet.
With each passing day, the spread of the spill is getting larger and is penetrating different parts of the coast. A strategic cleaning plan that encompasses a solution to all resultant effects of the spill is yet to be announced.