Monitoring and Cleanup Continue at Site of Diesel Spill Off Vancouver Island

VICTORIA (CP) – Cleanup efforts are underway to collect as much diesel oil and gasoline as possible from a slick that has spread about 14 kilometres near Robson Bight on northeast Vancouver Island.

Initial estimates put the amount of diesel fuel on the surface of Johnstone Strait at about 200 litres of a potential 10,000 litres of fuel contained in a tank truck, other heavy logging equipment and a half dozen oil drums that plunged into the ocean when a barge overturned Monday.

Canadian Coast Guard spokesman Jamie Toxopeus says the Vancouver Island trucking company that owned the equipment has contracted Burrard Clean, which has equipment on scene, to co-ordinate cleanup efforts.

He says initial observations put the size of the slick at about 14 kilometres long by about 20 to 50 metres wide and very little fuel appears to be escaping any more.

While there may be long-term effects, a DFO researcher says the immediate threat is to scores of killer whales in the area that may inhale fumes sitting at the surface.

John Ford says whales do not have a sense of smell, so have no way of detecting diesel oil or avoiding the slick.

Monitoring of the slick and its effects are continuing, especially on the world famous whale-rubbing beaches at Robson Bight, located about 340 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.