10 years since Taean oil spill incident, 1.23 million people gave hand to create miracle

December 7, 2007 at 7:06 am. Hebei Spirit of Hong Kong national oil tanker collided with crane of Samsung Heavy Industries on the offshore of Manipo Beach in Taean-gun, Chungnam Province.
The accident caused a hole in the tanker oil tank and 12,547 pounds of oil hit the coast of Taean, the only coastal national park in Korea.
It was the worst marine pollution accident that the sea of life turned into the sea of death.

The hearts of the Korean looking at the black Sea were despair and anger itself. But the desperate mind that they could not leave the oiled sea could lead people their way to Taean.
People from all over the country who ran to Taean, even in cold weather, pumped oil up on the seashore.
There were many volunteers who put down their daily routines on weekends and holidays and had a fight with black oil in Taean.

At an international forum held a year after the Taean oil spill, environmental experts around the world were worried that long-term ecological and environmental destruction would occur in the waters of Taean.
Experts pessimistically predicted that it would be difficult to get back to the pre-crash stage even after decades.
Offshore of Taean has overtaken the expectations of experts and recovered to the original state at a rapid pace.
Since the end of 2009, two years after the accident, a green light for restoration of ecosystem emerged.
The clam-shell mortality rate fell to 4.7% from 24.6% in 2008. The concentration of seawater oil in the Taean coast has been reduced to half of the previous year.
In June 2016, more than 100 endangered species swam around Taean.
The headache inducing odor of oil disappeared as well.

World environmental experts also said, "If this were not for volunteers who ran across the country after the accident, this change would have been impossible."
Taean has become a holy place of hope that symbolizes the efforts and spirit of volunteers.
At Manipo Beach, people set up a memorial for overcoming the oil spill that recorded the epic of hope that the great Korean people made with sweat and tears.

In January 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the Taean Coast National Park Protected Area rating from 'Category V' (landscape protection area) to 'Category II' (National Park). IUCN classifies protected areas of the world into six types, I to VI. Upgrading from a landscape protected area to a national park grade 2 means that the area has excellent ecological value and excellent management and preservation.