The sight of an oil-drenched crab clawing its way across the beach of Hua Hin, dragging a trail of viscous black goo across the sand, is hardly the image authorities have in mind when promoting Thailand as an idyllic tourist destination. It is perhaps for this very reason men in clean navy blazers with government insignia brought out shiny shovels and posed for the cameras on Wednesday morning. The Hua Hin Tourist Police chose a particularly white and clean stretch of beach to show social media they were busy extracting black gold.
Pay no attention to the oil spill behind the curtain — on Thursday the beach remained murky and those involved in the clean-up had their hands, and no doubt clothes, blackened. Still, a few brave souls ventured back to the shore in their swimsuits and shorts.
The facts are few and the questions are many. Basic details remain unclear, including how many litres were spilled, how vast the affected area is, how toxic the oil is, if it was all removed and whether that was done at all safely. Then there is the matter of who is responsible, how to prevent this from happening again and whether there are grounds for prosecution.
The sludge washed up on Tuesday, marking a 10km stretch of coast from Hua Hin to Khao Takiab. There were reports it also reached the beach outside Klai Kangwon Palace and as far north as Cha-am, 32km north of the popular monkey mountain. The beach was closed as long as the story was in the news, which meant tourists were lying on their towels taking in the rays on Thursday morning. An inquiry was announced, so the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry’s Mineral Fuels Department and the Transport Ministry’s Marine Department will be made to look busy. Samples were sent to Belgium for testing, so a more definitive idea of the spill’s origin will emerge in the next four to six weeks.
The Mineral Fuels Department’s acting director-general, Veerasak Puengrassami, said the tests would help determine whether the slick came from a leaking tanker or ships which flushed out oil and rubbish somewhere nearby — which seems to be the most likely cause — or from other petroleum-related activity in the Gulf of Thailand — less likely, since no incidents have been reported. Satellite imagery later reportedly revealed several fishing vessels at the mouths of the Mae Klong and Tha Chine rivers were discharging oil after the slick washed ashore; if true there could be more to come. Another theory investigators are pursuing is a leaking oil tanker, as one had been spotted at Mae Klong Bay on the night of Oct 22. Further support for this theory came after aerial patrols spotted a 500m-long slick about one nautical mile off the coast of Hua Hin; the navy secretariat said late last week it was looking for a large vessel it believed was still in Thai waters.
The lack of clarity is understandable if a rogue vessel or vessels are to blame, but it is still far from reassuring when even the extent of the problem is unclear. Given more than 10km of beach was affected, it is hard to imagine the slick amounted to less than 1,000 litres. This would make it a Tier 3 spill, the most serious under the Pollution Control Department’s classifications. These tend to result from serious collisions or leaks in pipelines and storage tanks. The response, however, has been more in line with the department’s guidelines for dealing with Tier 2 spills: the government and private sector work together to clean up the mess and the Marine Department is notified.
The Hua Hin slick is towards the smaller end of the scale for a Tier 3 spill, and appears to be nowhere near the extent of the oil spill off Rayong two years ago which struck Koh Samet’s Ao Phrao beach. That spill, which came about after a hose burst during a transfer from an undersea oil well to a tanker, was officially 50,000 litres, although experts have said it could have been as much as four times that amount. The effects of the July 2013 spill were significant, particularly on fisheries but also on tourism, and are still being felt in Rayong today.
Still, given there was a time hundreds of thousands of litres were spilled as a result of a series of container ship collisions in Chon Buri and Rayong in the 1990s and early 2000s, it must be said Thailand’s record with oil spills has improved significantly over the decades.
Hopefully, this latest spill is an isolated incident and the government inquiry will get to the bottom of the matter. It is the first time Hua Hin has been subjected to a spill of this kind — until now the only oil-drenched crabs have been fried and served up on plates — and authorities will want to do what they can to prevent it from happening again. It is difficult to have confidence, however, when basic facts are missing and conflicting accounts are circulated. Clear answers and holding the responsibly party or parties to account will do more to brush aside doubts than any shiny shovel ever can.