The Canadian Coast Guard is confirming that a response is underway following what’s being called an “accidental pollution incident” in the waters off the south coast of Newfoundland.
A Dutch-flagged cargo ship called MV Alaskaborg has been ordered to stop in its position some 100 nautical miles south of Cape Race after the vessel sustained damage to a fuel tank in rough weather, a coast guard spokesperson wrote in a statement Friday morning to CBC News.
No injuries were reported, and the source of the leak has been stopped.
The company that owns the vessel involved in the incident, Royal Wagenborg, says it plans to mitigate any further environmental damage.
The company issued a statement Friday saying the ship was sailing from Canada to Europe when the Alaskaborg “experienced an unintentional outflow of an oily water bilge mixture as a result of an emergency bilge operation of the cargo hold.”
The company said an investigation is underway to determine what caused the “unintentional outflow,” and “we will offer our full co-operation.”
The outflow was discovered after daylight on Thursday morning and the incident was immediately reported to authorities in Canada and the Netherlands, said the company.
“Our crew has taken immediate successful action to prevent a further outflow of the oily water,” reads the statement.
Neither the coast guard nor the company has given an estimate of the volume of pollutants spilled into the sea.
The Canadian Coast Guard ship Ann Harvey is on the way to the scene, and a surveillance flight is scheduled.
Alaskaborg is a 143-metre ship built in China in 2012.
Royal Wagenborg has been ordered to provide a response plan, and the owner has also engaged a Transport Canada-certified spill response company, according to the coast guard.
“Our highly trained environmental response specialists are monitoring to ensure the owner conducts an appropriate response to mitigate the risk to the marine environment,” the Coast Guard statement reads.
