The GSD says it is concerned about the effect of the oil pollution incident earlier today on the environment, marine life and our beaches. This has already lead to the closure of Camp Bay and Little Bay which at the height of summer also deprives families of some of their favourite and most beautiful parts of Gibraltar. It is also impacting on historic Rosia Bay. 

The Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi was briefed this afternoon by the Minister for the Environment, Dr John Cortes on the causes of the incident and the preliminary investigations by our authorities. The GSD understands that the Civil Contingencies Committee will meet tomorrow and Dr Cortes is expected to provide an updated briefing to Mr Azopardi at that stage. 

Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi said: “Clearly this is a serious situation which is affecting the environment, marine life and our beaches. The immediate focus is on the necessary action to contain this and to handle the clean- up operation so that there is minimum impact on the environment and disruption to the enjoyment of our beaches. We are grateful to essential services handling the clean-up operation. Beyond that there will be natural questions on how this happened, the adequacy and speed of our oil spill response capability or resources and to ensure that if there are improvements or investments to be made in future or lessons to be learned from this incident that we do so.”