Feb 02 (NHK) - Oily objects that may have come from a tanker that sank off a southwestern island in Japan has reached the Japanese coast.
Japan's Coast Guard says it received a report on Thursday about oily objects that had washed ashore on a beach of Amami Oshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture.
The Coast Guard later confirmed the presence of black objects along a roughly 500-meter stretch of the beach. It suspects the oil came from the Iranian tanker that sank about 315 kilometers west of the island in Japan's exclusive economic zone last month.
China's Ministry of Transport held a news conference in Beijing on Thursday. It said the detected oil slick from the tanker had shrunk to an area of around 30 square kilometers as of Sunday.
The ministry said it assessed the quality of water samples from about 360 locations near the sunken tanker. It said it found an above-standard density of oil substances at 11 of them. It added the marine environment has been affected to some degree.
The ministry said the tanker was carrying highly volatile crude oil known as condensate and some 1,900 tons of heavy oil for fuel.
The ministry stressed that it will continue its probe and clean-up of the oil spill.
Three of the tanker's crewmembers were confirmed dead while 29 others remain unaccounted-for.
Japan's Coast Guard has been coordinating with Chinese authorities to search for the missing people and clean up the oil slick.
Source: ANNnewsCH
