The Environmental Safety Group says it was “shocked and saddened” to witness the spread of heavy, thick marine oil throughout the harbour area caused by an accident at sea from a vessel taking bunker fuel off the South Mole.

The group says a full investigation into the cause of the spill must be carried out by the Port Authority to establish the extent of the spill and level of supervision in place during this particular transfer.

A statement continued: “The coordinated action by the Port, Department of the Environment and different entities involved in the Command Centre, has helped remove the worst of the oil spill although there still remain a few significant hotspots. These include the bathing pavilion area among others. Land based cleaning will follow but it will be some time before the impacts from this oil spill are fully known and pollution caused by it, disappear entirely.

“The threats to birds and sea life are obvious and the ESG demands that every effort is made by the authorities to establish precisely what happened following the apparent valve failure. It would like to know whether a full investigation has started into all aspects of the fuel transfer?

“With the significant season for diving birds underway the ESG is particularly concerned by this spill and would like to hear about all the steps that will be taken to ensure this does not happen again. We would like to know the volume of oil that was leaked and the speed in which the oil contingency response was initiated. 

“Finally the group expects that ‘polluting paying regulations’ will be fully applied once the investigation is completed to cover the costs of the clean up and impact on the environment which will continue for some time given the very challenging nature of cleaning up an oil spill.” 

A number of birds have been taken in for treatment so far. 

If anyone spots a soiled bird please do not approach but contact the Environmental Protection Team on 58009620 immediately.