Lyme Bay: Oil tanker fleet fuels fears of ecological disaster (From Bridport and Lyme Regis News)

Lyme Bay: Oil tanker fleet fuels fears of ecological disaster

10:41am Thursday 26th November 2009

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CONSERVATIONISTS and fishermen fear oil tankers anchored in Lyme Bay are an ecological disaster waiting to happen.

Their concerns are fuelled by 10 ships carrying an estimated one million tonnes of crude oil sitting in Lyme Bay waiting for oil prices to rise.

The tankers are thought to be earning the oil speculators £1million per day as they sit off the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site in a proposed Special Area of Conservation.

Lyme Bay is home to around 300 recorded species of plants and animals, including dense populations of the nationally-protected pink seafan and the extremely rare sunset coral.

Lyme Bay is also an important sea angling area and commercial inshore fishery, as well as a prime tourist destination, say conservationists.

Dorset Wildlife Trust chief executive Simon Cripps said it was unclear what the safety standards of these vessels are, whether they are single or double-hulled or how securely they are anchored.

“In a week of storms and gales the danger is a real one,” he said.

“This is an accident waiting to happen. Even a minor spill or accident would devastate one of the world’s most valuable and sensitive coasts, killing animals and plants and ruining livelihoods for years.

“This is not a Nimby approach, this is common-sense risk management. You wouldn’t allow a one million-tonne oil tank on the banks of the River Frome.

“The shipping companies should take this Sword of Damocles away from our coast and place these tankers more responsibly in safe harbours such as Portland, or better still take them away from sensitive areas. A million pounds’ profit per day buys you a lot of responsible corporate behaviour.

“We would like to see regulations to prevent them from threatening such important areas in the future.”

There has been a mixed reaction from fishermen in the area.

Jim Portus, secretary of the South West Inshore Fisherman’s Association (Swifa) said he shared the concerns, particularly for such an important fishing area.

He said: “Also, from a mariner’s point of view, all those oil tankers sitting out there are a threat.

“It could be that all these fixed objects could well have a collision or in these storms could well drag an anchor and run aground and we are right to be concerned about it.

“When they had an oil spill off Spain, the shellfish industry was devastated for at least five years before there was environmental recovery.

“Thankfully, it did recover but in the meantime the fishing industry was completely halted.

“That’s the first thing that would happen here – the shellfishing, the crabbing, the lobster potting, the scallop fishing would be devastated. It is always the shellfish that can’t avoid the oil.”

But Lyme Regis trawlerman Chris Wason believes there is no need to worry. He said: “They have been doing it for years – ever since I have been fishing we have always seen them.

“Obviously it would be a problem if one did run aground but I’m not too concerned because the anchors they have got are pretty safe and they have got designated areas where they can anchor.”

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