September 14th, 2011 | Caixin China’s Bohai Sea Drowns in
Discharged Waste Oil from a recent spill blended with 30 years
of waste dumped by cities and factories ringing the once-
beautiful sea A recent offshore oil spill has given China reason
to pause for a close look at the filth floating in the Bohai Sea
which, after eons of pristine beauty followed by three decades
of intense pollution, is today seriously ill. A map of polluted
areas included in a 2008 Report on the Quality of the Marine
Environment of the Bohai Sea, published by the State Oceanic
Administration (SOA), still paints a depressing picture. It
shows that the entire length of the Bohai shore, with the
exception of a few sections near Hebei Province’s South
Qinhuangdao and Beidaihe, as well as Liaoning Province’s Dalian,
has been seriously polluted. Moreover, the report described sea
conditions long before last year’s oil tank explosion and spill
in the Dalian area, and crude oil started leaking from
ConnocoPhillips drilling rigs in June. As of