The sinking of the Iranian freighter Sanchi earlier this month in Japan's exclusive economic zone is one of the worst maritime disasters in recent years. All crew members of the ship are presumed dead and its cargo of petroleum liquids threatens to poison those waters for some time. This incident must be a wake-up call to officials and publics in Northeast Asia and compel them to better prepare for such accidents.

The Sanchi was a Panamanian-flagged supertanker, 274 meters in length with a displacement of more than 85,000 tons. Managed by the National Iranian Tanker Company, it was carrying 136,000 tons — about 1 million barrels — of condensate (a mix of petroleum liquids that are extracted from natural gas) destined for South Korea. On Jan. 6, the ship collided with the CF Crystal, a freighter, and its volatile cargo exploded. The accident occurred about 160 nautical miles east of Shanghai, but high winds pushed the ship away from China and into Japan's EEZ where it sank eight days later.

All 32 members of the Sanchi's crew are presumed dead; the entire crew of the CF Crystal have been rescued. Search and rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather and high seas, extreme conditions created by explosions and fire, the toxic chemicals involved and the remote location of the accident, which necessitated a 20-hour roundtrip to replenish equipment to fight the fires. Chinese officials said that "there was no precedent for this accident," noting not only that conditions were worse than anything they had trained for but that it was the first time a tanker carrying this particular cargo had exploded.