Photo: Sean Burns

Last Wednesday the bulk carrier MV Olivia ran aground on Nightingale Island in the Tristan da Cuhna archipelago in the South Atlantic.  See our previous post. By Friday, she had broken up in heavy seas with 1,500 tonnes of heavy fuel oil in her bunker tanks.   The spilled oil is threatening wildlife, including nearly half of the world population of endangered Northern Rockhopper penguins.  There is also serious concern that if the vessel was harboring rats that they could be an even greater threat to land birds on previously rodent-free island.  Poison and bait stations are being sent to the island.

Oil still leaking from the Oliva at Tristan’s Nightingale Island