Bering Island, one of the Commander Islands, lies east of the
coast of Kamchatka and west of the U.S. territories in the Aleutians.
The only Aleut community on Russian soil and the only inhabited
village on the Commander Islands is the village of Nikolskoye
with about 750 residents, 300 of them Aleuts. The following is an
account of an accident that should serve as a warning sign and
an opportunity to examine the Achilles heel in shipping regulation
and disaster preparedness, pointing the way toward policy
changes to prevent worse disasters.
In July 2003, a 20-ton container filled with a hazardous chemical
used in cement (tetratethylene glycol diheptanoate) washed up
off the western coast of Bering Island, near the northwestern fur
seal rookery and 15 kilometers from the local fishing grounds. The
container, owned by the DuPont Corporation, was being shipped
from South Africa to Korea and was lost at sea in March 2003.
When the container was discovered on the beach, there was
no disaster response plan in place. Individuals who got close to the

container to examine it did not have any training in the handling of
hazardous materials or the necessary equipment and clothes. They
were poisoned and needed medical assistance.
The first attempt to move the container away from the area
where tidal waves could throw it on the rocks and break it was
unsuccessful. The container cracked and approximately 15 tonnes
of the chemical leaked, creating a 400 square-meter oily spill.
A later survey counted 46 dead birds and one dead seal.
The Anchorage office of the Aleut International Association,
after receiving first news of the accident, made a round of calls to
maritime attorneys in an attempt to find legal counsel for the village
of Nikolskoye. Finally a firm with appropriate expertise was
located in Juneau, Alaska. A telephone conversation, however, was
abruptly interrupted by the news that the firm had been hired to
represent DuPont.
DuPont provided funds for clean up, environmental assessment
and some emergency response equipment. The nature and
size of this work was mostly determined by DuPont itself.
This particular accident was small, but it exposed potential
problems. Governments may want to identify measures that
can help prevent accidents and address response, especially in
light of expected increases in shipping.