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BRISBANE, Australia — Authorities declared a disaster zone Friday along a stretch of some of Australia’s most popular beaches after tons of fuel oil that leaked from a cargo ship blackened the white sand for miles.
The Queensland state government denied it had acted too slowly to stop an environmental disaster and threatened the shipping firm with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
Britain’s Swire Shipping Ltd., the Hong Kong-registered ship’s owner, said containers of fertilizer had slipped from the ship’s deck as it rocked in rough seas, ripping a hole in a fuel tank and spilling more than 11,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil. Later, the company said an inspection of the hull led it to conclude the amount of spilled oil was “significantly more.”
