Alaska is hoping to avert an ecological disaster after a 225-metre cargo ship broke in half in the Bering Sea close to the Aleutian Islands, spilling 570 tonnes of heavy bunker oil.
The ship’s engines failed during a storm and it was driven aground. As Â鶹´«Ã½ went to press, there were more than 1000 tonnes of oil still aboard the bulk carrier in three tanks that appear to be intact. The-six-year-old Selendang Ayu was carrying soybeans from Tacoma in Washington state on the heavily travelled great-circle route to China, which cuts through the Aleutian Islands. An attempt to tow it clear failed when the 20-centimetre-thick…
