Blowout: the Montara wellhead platform
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- PTTEP prepares to spray Montara
- Leak forced evacuation from West Atlas
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Doubts emerge over Montara spill study
Doubts have emerged over the reliability of tests showing no contamination of marine life from the Montara spill, off the Western Australia coast, according to reports.
Scientists who carried out tests on fish caught in the spill area warned that the tests may not be a comprehensive indicator of the spill's environmental impact.
The spill, which started two months ago, is in an extremely remote location, raising concerns among some MPs and green groups about the amount of information being made public, a report in Melbourne-based daily newspaper the Age said.
A number of tests have been carried out on marine life near the leak, but only one report has so far been released by the federal Environment Department.
That report, endorsed by the federal government, found no oil contamination in the fish studied.
However, the test studied just four fish, and they were delivered to the scientists frozen - which precluded examination of bile, the best guide to oil contamination, the Age said.
The scientists, from Perth's Curtin University, warned that oil by-products could accumulate in bile ''1000 times higher'' than in flesh, and tests on bile would be a better guide.
''Collection and analysis of fish bile would be a more sensitive parameter in informing on possible exposure of fish to petroleum hydrocarbons,'' the scientists said in their report.
Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Chris Smyth told the Age the lack of proper information about the spill was an embarrassment for Australia.
''It has been very difficult for the public to get the real story about what's going on off the Kimberley coast," he said.
Environment group WWF will release its own survey of the environmental impact today after a three-day boat journey to the waters around the spill.
The federal government stood by the tests, saying the scientists were among Australia's leading toxicologists, and further testing would be done.
No one from PTTEP was immediately available for comment.