FSO SAFER explainer - The decaying supertanker is an environmental & humanitarian threat
Moored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast, the FSO Safer is a supertanker in advanced state of decay that will soon break apart or explode if the world does not act.
The FSO Safer supertanker is holding four times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez – enough to make it the 5th largest oil spill from a tanker in history. If we do not act now, the result will be an environmental, humanitarian and economic catastrophe centered on the coast of a country already devastated by years of war.
A massive spill from the Safer would destroy pristine reefs, coastal mangroves and other sea life across the Red Sea, expose millions of people to highly polluted air, and cut off food, fuel and other life-saving supplies to Yemen, where 17 million people already need food aid. Coastal communities would be hit hardest. Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the fishing industry would be lost almost overnight. It would take 25 years for fish stocks to recover. The cost of cleanup alone would be $20 billion.