"Tarballs" pollution having bad effect on south Thailand fishing - could be heading for Samui

 

Picture: Sanook

 

Sanook reported that a 25 kilometer stretch of the Nakhon Sri Thammarat shoreline has been affected by lumps of petroleum known as "tarballs". 

 

The phenomena are affecting fishermen in the southern Thai province especially in terms of which fish they can catch. 

 

Aerial photography showed pictures of the Hua Sai beach.

 

Navy personnel have been drafted in to help with the clean-up but it is a tricky operation. 

 

Investigations are underway to try and determine the origin of the tarballs. 

 

There are fears that the pollution could be heading the way of holiday island Koh Samui and warnings to look out for them have been issued.

 

Tarballs are blobs of petroleum that have been weathered after floating in the ocean. An aquatic pollutant they can be natural in origin and are not always associated with oil spills, notes Thaivisa. 

 

Source: Sanook

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-03-04

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13 minutes ago, webfact said:

Navy personnel have been drafted in to help with the clean-up but it is a tricky operation. 

Yes, bet it involves some elbow grease....

Natural phenomenon? lol

By total coincidence, there are oil rigs offshore..

4 hours ago, webfact said:

There are fears that the pollution could be heading the way of holiday island Koh Samui and warnings to look out for them have been issued.

Your warning comes too late, the sea and the beaches of Samui have been landfills for years!

Tarballs are blobs of petroleum that have been weathered after floating in the ocean. An aquatic pollutant they can be natural in origin and are not always associated with oil spills, notes Thaivisa. 

 

I note that Thai visa does not quote it's source on the above statement.

It's from Wikipedia. Why not say so? One has been criticised for not quoting sources oneself. Goose and gander....

10 hours ago, Vigilante said:

By total coincidence, there are oil rigs offshore..

They wont be from a rig, most likely & usually from a tanker cleaning its tanks. believe it or not the Department of Mineral Resources in Thailand is very strict, they would be able to trace to a rig.

I can attest that this is happening further south in Ranot district, Songkhla as well.

 

On 3/4/2020 at 12:10 PM, Vigilante said:

Natural phenomenon? lol

By total coincidence, there are oil rigs offshore..

Gas Production not oil 

On 3/13/2020 at 8:44 PM, norfolkc said:

Gas Production not oil 

 

There's oil production as well.  But they're a lot more diligent about keeping oil out of the sea than most fishing boats, cargo vessels, ferries, and other boats.   

 

Each platform has an assay (complete chemical breakdown of the oil) to help the refineries decide how to process the oil from that field.  So it wouldn't be hard to tell if the oil came from a production platform- and which one. 

 

More likely scenarios(s):

 

https://www.eco-business.com/news/southeast-asia-is-the-worlds-bilge-dumping-hotspot-what-can-be-done-to-stop-ships-discharging-waste-oil/

 

https://skytruth.org/2019/07/more-oil-pollution-in-southeast-asia-suspected-bilge-dumping-off-indonesia-and-the-philippines/