An ageing tanker cracks open in a storm, spilling thousands of tonnes of oil before sinking. A week later another tanker, loaded with liquefied petroleum gas, catches fire - threatening a second major catastrophe for marine life.
As black sludge continues to wash up on Spain's beaches amid accusations of a poorly co-ordinated clean-up effort - and with firefighters still battling the Gaz Poem blaze 50km from Hong Kong - experts can offer few assurances about the contingencies for handling a major petrochemical spill in the South China Sea.
Hong Kong is the major port serving the South China Sea, home to rich marine life and some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Its Marine Department has an 800-nautical mile search-and-rescue responsibility covering much of it.
The department said, however, that it only had contingency plans for dealing with a shipping-related environmental disaster in Hong Kong waters and the Pearl River Delta.
It was unclear whether any plans existed to co-ordinate an international response to a spill in the South China Sea, plied by ships carrying oil from the Middle East to Japan and the mainland.
'Our plan is geared towards Hong Kong waters, other maritime authorities would have to have their own arrangements [for the South China Sea],' said the department's general manager of services, Adam Lau Yu-wah.
The SAR's small fleet of launches that carry oil-cleaning equipment such as booms and skimmers did not have the range to operate far beyond the delta area, he said.
