No Signs of Damage, Harm to Whales From Diesel Spill Off West Coast: Officials

VANCOUVER (CP) – Officials say there’s no evidence a barge accident that spilled thousands of litres of diesel fuel near a protected killer whale habitat has caused any damage or harmed the orcas.

Several pieces of logging equipment and a diesel fuel truck tumbled off the barge when it listed for unknown reasons Monday while being towed to Campbell River, B.C.

Orcas were seen swimming through a giant fuel slick in Johnstone Strait near Robson Bight on northern Vancouver Island, famed for its whale-rubbing beaches.

But officials say they’ve observed no changes in the whales’ behaviour and no evidence of diesel residue on the shoreline.

Environment Canada spokesman Bruce Kaye says the oily sheen on the water now is almost imperceptible and the original slick’s size might have been overestimated because a nearby algae bloom could have been mistaken for oil.

Kaye says workers monitoring the site have observed only four marble-sized droplets of diesel welling up from the sunken equipment and believe most of the fuel was released when the fuel tank was crushed when falling to the 350-metre depth.