Karachi, Aug 14: A Greek-registered oil tanker, cracked and leaking, floundered off the Arabian Sea port of Karachi today, threatening to break in two and spill more than 40,000 tonnes of oil.
The MV Tasman spirit teetered half-submerged 100 meters off Karachi port, witnesses said, a day after Pakistan called off rescue efforts to salvage the tanker when it ran aground in July.
Karachi port authorities are expecting the vessel to crack up and explode at any moment, saying it had begun to buckle under the weight of waves that are expanding cracks in its hull.
It was also emitting fumes from heat and oil.
Some 20,000 tonnes of its cargo of 67,000 tonnes of oil had been secured, but the rest was likely to spill, Karachi port trust general manager Brigadier Iftikhar Arshad said.

A thick oil slick could be seen snaking from the ship to the shores alongside the port, blackening waves and seeping on to sands.

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Environmentalists predicted serious damage to local marine life.
"At least seven to eight kilometers of beach has been badly hit by the oil," Shahid Amjad, senior researcher at the Institute of Oceanography, said yesterday.

"This is a high productive area for fish and crabs, which are now threatened."

Bureau Report