On Saturday (February 14) the Coast Guard Marine Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) Dublin received a satellite surveillance pollution report from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in Lisbon, a specialist agency of the EU.
Aerial surveillance confirmed an oil spill covering approximately 4.5km by 5km surrounding a Russian aircraft carrier and a refuelling tanker.
The Russian naval attaché confirmed on Monday (February 16) that the carrier had been carrying out a fuel transfer at sea operation from a Russian supply tanker at sea. The attaché confirmed an internal investigation is being carried out into the cause of the incident and said that Russian aerial surveillance considered that approximately 300 tonnes of oil was on the sea surface but could not tell the Coast Guard how this happened or whether it was from their refuelling operations.
The UK Coastguard claims that their own aerial surveillance flights indicate that the spill is up to 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil. Estimates of oil quantity in water are reportedly highly difficult to estimate, as slick thickness can be variable over the length of the slick and therefore difficult to accurately gauge.
Vessels on scene at the moment include two refuelling tankers, one aircraft carrier, one Russian ocean-going tug, one Russian destroyer, one British destroyer and Irish naval vessel 'L.E. Aisling'.
The Coast Guard has contracted a Cork-based tug to proceed to the spill and evaluate the efficacy of mechanical at sea recovery. Coast Guard pollution equipment was transferred to Cork yesterday (February 17) for loading onboard and will commence recovery operations today (February 18).
According to a statement released by the Irish Department of Transport, the slick is breaking up and is spreading over a larger area and moving eastwards paralleling the coast 50km to 65km off. The oil spill is forecast to continue to disperse and to break up. The majority of the oil is expected to remain on the surface. The residual oil remaining is expected to develop into tar balls. Depending on weather conditions these may end up on the Irish south east coast in approximately 16 days time and also impact on the Welsh coastline.
