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Tuesday, 1 August 2023, 14:38
A fuel oil spillage from a vessel refuelling in the southern part of the Poniente anchorage, in the Bay of Gibraltar , has forced the suspension of operations in the port since Tuesday morning (1 August).
In a statement, the Government of Gibraltar explained that the Port Authority has already put its oil spill contingency plan in place in conjunction with the Department of Environment and that the Spanish authorities have been notified.
The incident occurred at around 8.22am on Tuesday at the southern part of the Poniente anchorage, when the vessel Gas Venus, flying the Panamanian flag, was taking on fuel and experienced an overflow of its tanks, although the amount of oil spilt into the sea has not yet been quantified.
The Gibraltar Environment department is closely monitoring the situation and lifeguards are on alert in case oil is detected on the west coast. In addition, a red flag has been raised in Camp Bay and Little Bay, due to the presence of oil on these shores, and bathers have been urged to exercise caution.
Gibraltar has also advised caution to people in pleasure craft and those fishing from a boat or from the shore.
The Verdemar Ecologists in Action group in Algeciras has criticised the incident, saying that "it has taken less than a year" to register "another accident" in this area, "following the bulk carrier OS35 incident in August 2022", a ship that sank 400 metres off the coast of La Línea and which was finally lifted from the sea in July.
Speaking to Europa Press, Antonio Muñoz also denounced the fact that "large-scale operations" are being carried out around the Bay of Algeciras with "the transfer" of "practically five million tonnes of marine fuel oil" in the Strait of Gibraltar, and that, "on many occasions, the operations are carried out without a full crew", something which, he claimed out, "is the reason for this series of accidents".
Muñoz called for "extreme caution" since, he insisted, the spillage occurred because "the safety systems did not work" and "there are not enough crew" on these ships to prevent such incidents from happening again.
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