The number of marine pollution and oil spill accidents in South Korea reported a rise during 2018, the Korea Coast Guard (KCG) informed. Namely, a total of 288 accidents of sea pollution were reported in the country in 2018, an increase of 6%, or 271, from the previous year.
As the Yonhap news agency reports, the amount of pollutants that leaked into the sea in the accidents increased as well by 9% to 251 kiloliters in 2018.
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A major factor that contributed to this increase in oil spills was the massive leak of 84 kiloliters of oil in three sinking or grounding accidents of cargo vessels and tugboats in the sea off Taean and Boryeong, in central South Korea.
Negligence during oil transfer operations was identified as the main cause of these accidents, accounting for 35.4%, or 102 incidents, while 29.2% of these incidents were caused by marine accidents.
As for vessel types, fishing boats were involved in 43.7% of accidents, followed by oil tankers with 10.8%, and cargo ships with 10.4%.
Region-wise, 51 marine pollution accidents took place in waters off Busan, with 40 occurring in Yeosu on the south coast, 28 in Mokpo on the southwestern coast, 25 in Ulsan on the southeastern coast and 20 in Incheon, west of Seoul.
In order to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future, the Korea Coast Guard plans to increase patrols in areas with a high risk of pollution accidents and improve the ability to respond to marine accidents with continuous training.
