{"id":15524,"date":"2024-02-14T00:46:21","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T00:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/14\/mysterious-oil-spill-sparks-national-emergency-in-trinidad-and-tobago\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T00:46:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T00:46:21","slug":"mysterious-oil-spill-sparks-national-emergency-in-trinidad-and-tobago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/14\/mysterious-oil-spill-sparks-national-emergency-in-trinidad-and-tobago\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious oil spill sparks national emergency in Trinidad and Tobago"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

An overturned vessel has caused a huge oil spill along Trinidad and Tobago\u2019s coastline, in what the Caribbean country\u2019s prime minister described as a \u201cnational emergency\u201d on Sunday. <\/p>\n

The spill occurred on February 7 off the southern shores of the Tobago Island, according to the country\u2019s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM). About 15 kilometers (9 miles) of the coastline \u201cis now blackened,\u201d the agency said in a statement Saturday. <\/p>\n

Photos from the scene show recovery workers wading through thick black sludge, with huge areas of the beach covered in oil. Several government agencies, including at least 1,000 volunteers, have been working to control the spill. <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keith Rowley said in a news conference Sunday that \u201cthe situation is not under control.\u201d The origins of the vessel have not yet been identified, he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a national emergency and therefore it will have to be funded as an extraordinary expense,\u201d Rowley said, adding, \u201cwe don\u2019t know the full scope and scale of what is going to be required.\u201d <\/p>\n

Authorities installed booms \u2013 floating barriers \u2013 to prevent the spill from spreading to other areas, said Farley Augustine, the chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly. Officials have also dispatched divers to try to plug the leak but have not been successful. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has to happen is that we have to find a way to now extract every bit of oil that\u2019s in the vessel, bearing in mind as we have been reiterating \u2013 not knowing the schematics of the vessel,\u201d Augustine told reporters. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not sure if it\u2019s a freighter, a tanker, or a barge because only the keel of the vessel is visible.\u00a0And\u00a0its identifying physical characteristics are in water that we can\u2019t penetrate for the moment,\u201d Rowley said Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut we do know it appears to be broken having made contact here and is leaking some kind of hydrocarbon that is fouling the water and the coastline,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Residents in the local area of Lambeau reported a constant stench from the spill, leaving some worried about their health, according to local media. <\/p>\n

Augustine, the chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, advised those with respiratory illnesses to use masks and \u201cself-relocate or find ways to mitigate against that.\u201d <\/p>\n

The spill took place during Carnival season, one of the country\u2019s biggest tourist attractions. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe best part of Tobago\u2019s economy is its tourism, so it is important that we be cognizant that we don\u2019t expose the tourism product to this kind of thing, and because this has happened, we have to contain it,\u201d the prime minister said. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An overturned vessel has caused a huge oil spill along Trinidad and Tobago\u2019s coastline, in what the Caribbean country\u2019s prime minister described as a \u201cnational emergency\u201d on Sunday. The spill occurred on February 7 off the southern shores of the Tobago Island, according to the country\u2019s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM). About 15 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}