Containership Spills Fuel in Vancouver Harbor

The Canadian Coast Guard spent the weekend responding to a fuel oil spill from a containership near Spanish Banks in Vancouver Harbour.

The spill was first detected Saturday morning and an investigation determined its source to be the M/V Europe at Anchorage 1 in English Bay.

Western Canada Marine Response Corporation responded to the incident and deployed boom around the ship as a precaution.

A helicopter, drones and pollution response vessels spent Sunday searching for any remaining fuel. Responders reported some non-recoverable sheens off Point Grey and the North Arm.

One slick was estimated to be approximately 60 to 100 liters of fuel, according to the Canadian Coast Guard.

No further releases of fuel have been detected.

Initial drone and helicopter surveys of shorelines found no impact to shorelines. On Monday, two shoreline cleanup teams were expected to comb shorelines to search for any signs of fuel that may not have been located by the aerial surveys.

M/V Europe was built in 2004 and has a TEU capacity of 8,468. The ship is owned by Danaos Corporation (NYSE: DAC) and is registered in Cyprus.

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