- Title: BRAZIL: MAJOR OIL SLICK POLLUTES BRAZIL'S BEST KNOWN TOURIST CENTRE
- Date: 5th April 1975
- Summary: 1. GV City workers raking up oil-soaked straw (3 shots) 0.16 2. GV AND CU Oil-covered shore and blackened trees (2 shots) 0.22 3. CU Small oily crab 0.26 4. CU Oil slick on beach PAN TO workers clearing mess (2 shots) 0.38 5. GV AND CU Workers loading bulldozer 0.48 6. GV AND CU Workers loading bulldozer GV Mechanical shovel loading lorry 1.00 Initials CL/0010 CL/0017 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 20th April 1975 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
- Country: Brazil
- Reuters ID: LVAF4FBUMOLIXZR3ES19VECHVUD4
- Story Text: Cleaning up operations continue at Rio de Janeiro's Guanabara Bay, Brazil's best known tourist resort, after a major oil spillage from a damaged tanker.
The bay's inner beaches were soaked in thick black oil up to one and a half feet deep. Currents carried the sticky mess out beyond the famous Sugar Loaf Mountain, threatening for a time the exclusive southern beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. The black sludge was washed p over sidewalks on the waterfront and on two occasions the oil in the sea caught fire.
It was the worst case of oil pollution so far in Brazilian waters.
The trouble began on Thursday (27 March) when an Iraqi oil tanker, the 140,000 ton Tarik Ibn Ziyad, had her hull sliced open, apparently by an underwater obstruction, while approaching the docks to unload. Between 10,000 and 18,000 tons of oil spilled out.
The military and city sanitation workers have joined with officials of Petrobas, the state run oil company, in trying to clean up the mess. Detergents were sprayed over the oil slick to try to sink it. Straw and paper was used to soak up the oil on the beaches - with limited success. Fresh sand was dredged from the bay bottom to replace the oil-soaked sand.
The visual effects of the spillage are expected to last for at least another two weeks. The effect on marine life will be more lasting and more serious, and the bay will be polluted for a long time.
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