Feature story - September 26, 2007
Greenpeace, along with the Living Oceans Society, continues to put pressure on the federal and provincial governments to investigate a diesel spill that took place inside an ecological reserve, threatening a population of orca whales. Despite warnings of the dangers posed by the spill, the Transport Safety Board reportedly has decided not to comply with early calls for a full underwater investigation into the barge accident in August at the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve northeast of Vancouver Island that left a tanker carrying 10,000 litres of oil at the bottom of the sea.
Greenpeace is concerned about the health of one of the largest resident orca populations near Vancouver Island, after a diesel spill in an ecological reserve.
In an effort to reverse this decision, letters are being sentto MPs asking them to contact the fisheries minister, Loyola Hearn andthe Coast Guard commissioner, George Da Pont to request that the CoastGuard conduct an underwater investigation as a matter ofurgency.
While some diesel fuel has spilled into theocean, there is the possibility of over 9000 litres remaining on thesea floor in this whale reserve, which could leak for decades. So far,neither the federal nor provincial governments has made any adequateattempt to inspect the wreckage and determine the extent of the cleanup required.
Environmentalist groups say that if thegovernment does not investigate whether the fuel truck continues toleak and if the wreckage can be removed, they will inspect the siteindependently.
Failure to respond to this crisisemphasizes both government's inability and unwillingness to clean updisasters of this nature, say the groups. They warn that the fuel truckcould be a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode in one of the mostpristine whale habitats in the world.
"If we can'tmitigate a leak of 10,000 litres of diesel, what would we do with atanker accident?" asks Sarah King of Greenpeace. "This latest spill isclear evidence that we need to maintain the moratorium on tankertraffic on the West Coast inside passage. The Harper government shouldpublicly commit to maintaining the moratorium."
Thepublic is being asked to help raise the $35,000 required for a privateinvestigation of the oil spill by donating to the Save Robson BightFund.