A Manx-registered container ship has been held by coastguards in Florida after an oil spill.
The Seaboard Rio Haina was filling her ballast tanks when fuel oil flooded onto her decks and spilled into the river at Fernandina.
Since the incident on Friday evening, officials say they’ve discovered she’s missing 800 gallons of oil from her fuel tanks, although the extent of any leak is not yet known.
The coastguard say the ship won’t be allowed to leave until they’ve investigated further.
Jason Roberts reports:
(Text of attached audio)
The Seaboard Rio Haina can carry almost a quarter of a million tonnes of fuel oil, and emergency services say a small slick was spotted in the Amelia River but has been cleaned up.
Over the weekend, various agencies including the Coast Guard, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Nassau County Emergency Management and Fernandina Beach Fire Rescue found no significant signs of pollution.
A small sheen of oil sighted cleaned up by Jacksonville Pollution Control, and the ship was surrounded with a containment boom.
(Picture courtesy of US Coastguard Service)
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