Foreign ship discharges wastewater into Yangtze

A foreign cargo ship has been caught discharging wastewater into the Yangtze River, a local maritime authority said Monday.

During a regular air patrol around 2 pm Sunday, maritime officials found a ship discharging a red liquid into the Yangtze River in Shanghai, according to a press release from the Wusong Maritime Safety Administration Bureau, which oversees some of the nearby waterways.

The ship was registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, an island country in the Caribbean Sea, said Zhang Shulei, a press officer with the Wusong Maritime Safety Administration Bureau. The red liquid turned out to be ballast water, which poses at least two potential environmental hazards.

The first is that the water may contain species native to other parts of the world that may pose a threat to the local ecosystem, Zhang told the Global Times. Ballast water can also contain paint residue from the ship, which when discharged, is a harmful pollutant that can damage the local fishing industry.

Maritime officials are checking to see what was in the ballast water to determine if the ship violated any laws, Zhang said.

If violations are found, the authority will impose a punishment according to Chinese maritime environmental protection law.