Oil from sunken Iranian tanker reaches Japanese shores

Japan's Coast Guard said on Thursday that oil-contaminated waters that recently reached the southern islands of Japan are likely the result of the sinking of the Iranian oil tanker Sanchi. According to Reuters, the Japanese Coast Guard added that the oil materials observed on February 8 on the shores of the Amami Islands in southern Japan are related to the sinking of the Iranian tanker Sanchi. A Japanese Coast Guard official told Reuters, "The oil-contaminated materials that have reached the southern shores of Japan are likely related to the sinking of the Sanchi tanker because this pollution resembles the oil cargo of that ship, and there have been no other maritime incidents in the recent period that could have led to oil spills in the region." The first signs of oil pollution reached the shores of Takara-jima Island on January 28, and since then, this pollution has spread to the shores of 21 other islands in southwestern Japan, including the Amami Islands, Oshima, and Okinawa, known for their clean and rocky beaches. The Iranian tanker Sanchi, which the Coast Guard said was carrying 810,000 barrels of highly flammable diluted oil, sank after colliding and exploding multiple times. The bodies of two crew members were found inside the tanker, and the body of another crew member was found in the surrounding waters. The remaining 29 crew members and sailors also lost their lives in this incident. On January 17, the Chinese government announced that two large oil slicks had formed due to the sinking of this tanker. Japan's Ministry of the Environment stated in January that it was unlikely that oil pollution from the sinking of this tanker would reach its shores. The Japanese Coast Guard announced on Wednesday that sampling from 14 locations in the waters of the area between January 29 and February 2 showed no signs of oil pollution. Nevertheless, an oil-contaminated mass was still observed around the sinking point of the tanker. The Japanese Coast Guard said on Thursday that the distance of this pollution from the shores of the Amami-Oshima Islands is about 315 kilometers, with a length of 700 meters and a width of 20 meters. The Japanese Coast Guard added that patrol vessels from Japan and China were searching the accident area for missing crew members while also attempting to disperse the contaminated waters by repeatedly passing through the oil-contaminated area.