"Oil Spill Threatens South Korea's West Coast Wetlands"

About 15,000 tons of oil spilled off the west coast on Friday when a barge carrying a crane collided with a tanker lying at anchor, puncturing it in three places. The accident is the largest offshore oil spill ever to take place in South Korea, a police spokesman said.
South Korea's Coast Guard said the amount of oil spilled by the collision with the tanker was lower than originally estimated. The new estimate is that about 10,500 kiloliters - 66,043 barrels or 2.77 million gallons - of crude oil had been spilled into the Yellow Sea, staining the waters black.

The accident occurred around 7:10 am local time when the Samsung Corp. barge struck the 146,000 ton tanker Hebei Spirit in waters off Mallipo beach, about 90 miles southwest of Seoul...

"We are worried about an ecological disaster," said Kim Jong-sik, an official with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. "This is the country's worst oil spill.

Oil spill responders have set up a boom, trying to stop oil from spreading along the coast, but oil sometimes overflows it, depending on the currents, he said. The oil slick now measures 4.6 miles long and 1.2 miles wide, officials said.