Oil Spill Off China's Eastern Coast

The 2011 Bohai bay oil spill was a series of oil spills that began on June 4, 2011 at Bohai Bay. The spill itself however was not publicly disclosed until a month later.There were suspicions of official cover-ups by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

Environment impact 

Outside of the spill area, dead seaweed and rotting fish can be seen around Nanhuangcheng island in Shandong province.

"The oil, containing toxic substances and heavy metals, will greatly affect the growth of marine lives that live on the seabed, such as clams, scallops and some kinds of crabs," Xinhua reported last week quoting Cui Wenlin, director of the environmental monitoring centre with the North China Sea branch of the SOA.

Bohai is a half-closed sea with comparatively low self-clean ability due to limited water exchange with the outside, he added.

The environmental monitoring centre Cui directs has been monitoring the impacts of the oil spills on the Bohai's water quality, seabed sediments and marine lives.

Though the US firm claims that no oil sheen reached the shoreline after the spills, Xinhua reports that "dead seaweed and rotting fish have been reported in the water around Nanhuangcheng Island, about 74 kilometres south from where the leaks originated".