'I Think We Are Finished': Oil Clean-Up in South Korea Virtually Impossible

By Sunday (today), it became clear to local residents that they were battling an environmental disaster. The tidal flats near the county of Taean, about 150 kilometers southwest of Seoul, are home to rich wildlife, oyster and fish farms, and a national park. Each year, millions of tourists flock there to bathe in the summer or watch winter migrating birds stopping to feed in the muddy flats teeming with clams.

“Everyone is out there fighting. There is so much oil we have to use buckets to scoop it up,” Moon Hong Chol, a resident in Wonbuk village in Taean, said by telephone. “The dark brown slime is all over our oyster and abalone and clam beds. Tourists are canceling resort reservations. I think we are finished.”