400 to 480 tons of fuel ‘had leaked from New Diamond’

The captain of a fire-damaged supertanker that leaked fuel off the coast of Sri Lanka has been fined for causing the spill and failing to inform officials of the environmental damage, AFP reported.

It said the captain, Steiros Ilias Kardany, pleaded guilty to the two counts and was ordered to pay 12 million rupees ($65,000).

The Panamanian-registered New Diamond, traveling from Kuwait to India with 270,000 tons of crude oil, was passing by Sri Lanka’s east coast when the fire broke out at the start of September.

Firefighters succeeded in putting out the blaze, and the crude remained unaffected but some of the tanker’s fuel leaked.

The Chairman of the Marine Environment Protection Agency (MEPA) said carcasses of at least four porpoises and a dozen turtles had washed ashore in the eastern and southern areas of the island after the spill.

“We have taken tissue samples and sent for analysis,” Dharshani Lahandapura told AFP.

“We suspect that these sea mammals died as a result of the oil spill from the tanker.”

State prosecutors told the Colombo High Court that about 400 to 480 tons of fuel had leaked, causing a spill that stretched 40 km.

The vessel was towed to the UAE after the owners paid Sri Lanka $2.38 million for putting out the fire, AFP reported.

The court ordered that he could leave the island after paying the fine.