…Fishermen who trawl for catches near the north-eastern Chinese city of Tianjin will have their claims heard by a local court, four years after a major spill at an oilfield owned by US producer ConocoPhillips and state-owned China National Offshore Oil Co (CNOOC) damaged rich fishing grounds in the Bohai Sea.

The spill at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield in 2011 polluted around 5,500 square kilometres of Bohai Bay, according to China’s State Oceanic Administration, and at the time was said to be most serious marine ecological incident in China.

According to a report in Chinese newspaper thepaper.cn, a lawyer for the fishermen said it is the first time that a Chinese court has agreed to hear the case of Tianjin fishermen. A lawsuit was lodged on July 22. The Tianjin Maritime Court will hear the case, through which five fishermen are demanding 120,000-200,000 yuan (US$19,000-32,000) each in compensation from the oil companies for financial losses, and a further 20,000 yuan in costs.

If the first five fishermen to have their cases heard are successful, then many more could follow, said Wang Haijun, one of the lawyers who is working on the lawsuit. “We’ve got 160 cases we want to bring,” said Wang. “These five are just to test the water.” …