Malacca Straits may turn into dead sea: Paper

Malacca Straits may turn into dead sea: Paper

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): The Straits of Malacca, one of the world's most congested waterways, will soon be devoid of marine life unless action is taken to fight oil pollution, the New Straits Times newspaper reported yesterday.

"Experiments have demonstrated that the busiest strait in the world in terms of oil tanker traffic can only tolerate another three to four-fold increase in oil pollution," the newspaper quoted a Malaysian marine specialist, Law Ah Theem, as saying on Saturday.

The Straits of Malacca, which connects the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, is the shortest route between the oil fields of the Middle East and the booming economies of East Asia.

According to Malaysian officials, some 33,982 vessels passed through the waterway in 1993. Of these some 30 percent were oil tankers.

Law said the huge amount of waste and spills from oil tankers' operations, offshore oil production activities and coastal refineries as well as land-based oil industries have polluted the seas around Malaysia.

Law said there were already signs of disturbance in the marine ecosystems in Malaysian states bordering the Malacca Straits.

He predicted more crude oil transportation in the future due to the high economic development in the region.

"It would not be long before the level of crude oil residue in water reaches 1,000 parts per billion terminating all the primary production (of marine life) in the Straits," the paper quoted him as saying at a talk on oil pollution in the Malaysian Seas on Saturday.

Malaysia, which spends millions of dollars on navigational services in the Straits and also bears indirect costs from pollution and accidents, has been seeking the help of other countries to pay for the upkeep of the strategic, wreck-littered waterway.