Scientists have called for action to remove the oil from an abandoned taker in the Red Sea that holds approximately one million barrels of oil — four times the amount contained in the Exxon Valdez tanker which had a disastrous environmental oil spill in 1989.
According to the analysis, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, the tanker named Safer is a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) abandoned for years in the Red Sea.
“The time is now to prevent a potential devastation to the region’s waters and the livelihoods and health of millions of people living in half a dozen countries along the Red Sea’s coast,” said co-author Karine Kleinhaus, Associate Professor of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University in the US.