Monday 12th February 10:00
We heard last night from the divers working on the salvage that not all, but most of the oil has now been taken off the Celestial Dawn. They think it will be a small and simple job to complete the extraction (the same team worked on the Braer oil tanker disaster in the Shetlands, so that puts it into context!).
Today has dawned clear and calm so we hope that all danger of any further pollution in Dingle will soon be over.
However we also heard from the Department of the Marine that only about 12,000 litres of oil have been recovered from the vessel, with an estimated 1,200 litres remaining on board which they expect to extract today. As the vessel had 39,000 litres of diesel on board when she left port, a large amount would appear to have escaped from the vessel since February 2nd. The Department spokesperson says that due to the rough weather and the high evaporation rate of diesel, no significant pollution has occurred. We have to agree that there is no visible oil slick except right by the vessel. However we would not be so confident that 26,000 litres of diesel can disappear into the marine environment without having adverse affects on the fauna and flora so we await a full report on this.
Graham Timmins
graham@irishdolphins.com
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