‘Human error’ caused spill of up to 8,000 litres of fuel off B.C.’s coast: government

VICTORIA — Human error during a fuel transfer at a fish farm off the west coast of British Columbia has resulted in a spill into the water of up to 8,000 litres of diesel.

The B.C. government said in a report on its website that the spill happened Saturday at the Grieg Seafood fish farm near Zeballos, on the northwest side of Vancouver Island.

The report said the company has placed an absorbent boom around the spill site, but natural resources consultants say they haven’t been able to find any recoverable diesel on the water.

It said a visible sheen has been seen north and west of the spill site and the Canadian Coast Guard has sent out an advisory to other mariners to avoid the area of the spill.

The government said it is co-ordinating the clean up with Grieg Seafood, the group Strategic Natural Resources Consultants, leaders in the villages of Zeballos and Tahsis, and the Ehattesaht and Nuchatlaht First Nations.

It said the Ehattesaht First Nation has issued a clam harvesting alert and closure in the Zeballos Inlet.

The nation’s chief, Simon John, said in a statement on Monday that the whole event left him sad as he watches fuel sloshing around their territory and washing up on the beaches where they harvest their food.

“It is clam season and our people should be out there digging on these low winter tides. We have done this forever and this year we have to close some beaches,” said John.

He said there are about 40 people in the community and on the water tasked with cleaning up, including nation members, people from the company, the province, the coast guard and the Department of Fisheries.

He said the Ehattesaht First Nation will be looking for additional monitoring support over the next few days and it will launch a testing protocol to understand where the fuel is and whether the spill can be cleaned.

“We always know there are risks when there are activities but we must do better to prevent this type of accident,” said John.

Grieg Seafood, which runs 22 farms off Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, said in a written statement that there was a diesel spill from one of its sites in Esperanza Inlet.

The Norway-based company said it’s now working with the First Nations, coast guard and others to minimize damage.

“It was a human error, and we are looking into our routines, and how we transfer fuel in the future to make sure this does not happen again. We apologize for the disruption this has caused,” said the statement.

Living Oceans Society, a B.C.-based environmental group focusing on marine conservation, said in a post online Monday that Esperanza Inlet connects to at least a dozen spawning streams, and fishing charters are a “staple source of income” for nearby communities.

The group’s executive director, Karen Wristen, said she is concerned that the spill will have “far-reaching impacts” throughout the Inlet.

Wristen said the bad weather mixed with high tides over the weekend made the spill disperse “all over the place” and left the oil floating on the top of the water.

“So, that means that all shellfish harvesting is potentially at risk,” said Wristen, “And you know that would be long-term contamination.”

She said although diesel fuel evaporates fairly rapidly, it still leaves behind a residue of heavier substances that can contaminate the shellfish by making them “unsafe” and “quite unpalatable” to eat.

Wristen said there are sea otters, Olympic oysters and marbled murrelets living in that area and she had noticed warnings sent from the Ehattesaht First Nation over the weekend, asking people to keep a lookout for endangered species that might be affected by the spill.

“I think this merits close investigation by the authorities.

“I would suggest that someone failed to follow company protocol for supervising a fuel transfer, and must have failed to supervise it for an extended period of time, because it would take a long time for that much fuel oil to be dumped into the harbour, into the inlet,” said Wristen.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press