Disasters Close Shave off Morocco

By Lisa Beyer

It had all the makings of an ecological catastrophe. A mysterious explosion tears a huge gash in the hull of a supertanker off the northwest African coast, igniting a fire that forces the crew to abandon ship. For nearly two weeks, the leaking, foundering vessel is left to drift toward the rich fishing grounds and unspoiled beaches of Morocco. Some 19 million gal. of crude oil ooze into the sea, nearly twice the amount disgorged by the Exxon Valdez in Alaska last March. A replay of grim images -- gooey, blackened shorelines and oil-soaked animal corpses -- appears inevitable.

The actual event has so far proved to be far less damaging. Thanks to mild weather that kept the spill at bay, by the end of last week the 217-mile-long slick had stagnated about 29 miles off the Moroccan coast. Though the spill from the Iranian supertanker Khark 5 is the 16th largest in history, its eventual impact on the environment and Morocco's economy may be relatively mild. But until the oil is completely dispersed, changes in the weather may yet push the crude onto the shore. That possibility was keeping Moroccans on edge. "We are at the mercy of the winds," said Abdelkader Benothman, police chief of coastal Oualidia.

) The 284,632-ton Khark 5, en route from the Persian Gulf, had been steaming toward Rotterdam when the blast crippled her in rough seas some 100 miles northwest of Casablanca. The cause of the explosion remained unknown last week, although Iranian Oil Minister Gholamreza Aqazadeh attributed the blast to the rupture of one of the ship's storage tanks during a storm.

What happened next is disputed. According to French Environment Minister Brice Lalonde, who flew to Morocco to consult with authorities in the former French protectorate, the response lagged while the ship's owner, the National Iranian Tanker Co., bargained over the price of salvage with the Rotterdam- based firm Smit Tak. "Thirteen days were lost while they haggled like rug merchants," lamented Lalonde. Smit Tak explained that it was hamstrung by Spain and Morocco, which refused to allow the Khark 5 to be towed closer to their shores, where the company thought it could seal the leaks.

The Moroccan government, ill equipped to handle the spill on its own, inexplicably hesitated before publicly revealing the accident or calling for international assistance. "It's just unbelievable," oceanographer Jacques Cousteau told French radio. "A major disaster, and nobody moves."

Last week British, Spanish and French spill experts were on hand to help, but little could be done. Although 40% of the Iranian light crude had evaporated, the remainder was harder to dispel. Chemical dispersants, sprayed in limited quantities early in the week to break down the crude and make it sink, were effective for only a few days, until the oil emulsified, or mixed and bonded with seawater. Closer to shore, crews floated booms to protect oyster beds against the oil patch, which at one point came to within twelve miles.

Some experts warn that although much of the oil has sunk to the ocean floor, where it does not endanger seabirds, it may poison fishing grounds and oyster beds, which provide Morocco with thousands of jobs and sizable export revenues. Over the next few months, clumps of the remaining slick may yet wash ashore. The Moroccan coastline, which is fairly straight, may be easier to clean than the shores of Prince William Sound, which is serrated by scores of tiny inlets. But another danger is that if the Khark 5 encounters rough seas as it is towed to calm waters near the Cape Verde islands for salvaging, it may break up, releasing the remaining 53 million gal. of its cargo. "It is a floating bomb," said Lalonde.

^ Whatever the ultimate effect on marine life, the Khark 5 accident should sharpen scrutiny of the world's aging supertanker fleet. A number of the leviathans are approaching 15 years of age, which many shipping experts believe is near the end of their life-span, barring major renovations. Operators, on the other hand, insist that with proper maintenance the mammoth vessels can be used far longer.

Trusting shippers to keep their fleets in shape is another matter. Iran has been a major offender: over the past 14 months, authorities in Rotterdam have detained five Iranian tankers for maintenance deficiencies and barred their departure until repairs were carried out. The Khark 5 was not among them, but perhaps it should have been: the vessel, which was damaged three times in air strikes during the Iran-Iraq war, may have been structurally unsound. Yet Tehran seemed unmoved by the spill. Morocco's close shave, said Hassan Mohammadi, spokesman for Iran's environmental protection organization, was just an "ordinary matter."

With reporting by Margot Hornblower/Oualidia and David Postman/Juneau