▲ Seogwipo Harbour. Photo courtesy Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

A recent major story on Jeju has been about the risk of pollution from the Sanchi oil spill reaching Jeju. However, a report by the Jeju Regional Coast Guard suggests that this isn’t the only oil spill affecting the region.

This is because last year around seven thousand liters of oil were spilled in the waters around Jeju. The main reason for this was accidents involving boats.

After analyzing these accidents, the Jeju Regional Korea Coast Guard found that 7288 liters of oil was spilled from a total of 29 accidents.

In 21 of these cases, the reason for the leakage was accidents involving fishing boats. These accidents led to around 6862 liters of oil being spilled which is around 94% of the total. Leaks by other vessels resulted in around 418 liters of spilled oil, while around eight liters were due to accidents on land.

The amount of oil leakage caused by the fishing boat accidents is increasing every year. The most polluted area is Seongsan Harbour, one of the busiest harbours on Jeju. Here there were eight accidents during the year. This was followed by Jeju Harbour, Aewol Harbour, and the Seogwi Harbour.

According to the report, the pollution was mostly caused by carelessness, such as oil leaking during oil transfers. Because of this, it suggested that there was a need to analyze how these boats are being managed.

The Jeju coast guard mentioned that for the pollutions caused by the eight accidents in Seongsan Harbour, they have transferred the oil successfully and will open marine pollution education classes to decrease the marine pollution accidents in future.