The Wire

Salvage teams are busy working to contain the environmental damage caused by the Chinese ship the Sheng Neng 1 which ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef on the weekend. The ship still contains 950 tonnes of heavy engine oil and the urgency is to remove it before it begins to leak into the ocean around the reef. The massive operation depends on the weather staying fine and means more huge vehicles in the delicate area. Director of the Marine Conservation Society Darren Kindlisides says the incident must serve as a wake-up call to put more protection in palce for the future, especially with cargo ship traffic predicted to increase considerably because of mining activity.