Coast guard said small diesel spill has coloured Vancouver’s harbour

VANCOUVER – A small diesel slick spotted in Vancouver’s False Creek and nearby English Bay isn’t large enough to attempt a cleanup, according to a Canadian Coast Guard spokesman.

Dan Bate said in an interview that the colourful slick was reported Friday morning but crew members investigated and determined they wouldn’t be able to recover the thin sheen of fuel from the water.

“There was a Western Canada Marine vessel that was nearby, they took a look at the spill, which they determined to be a non-recoverable sheen.”

Western Canada Marine was the official clean-up crew that spent days skimming English Bay last year when a grain carrier spilled 2,700 litres of bunker fuel into the water.

Bate said the latest sheen spotted on the water is expected to evaporate quickly and will be broken up by wind and sun.

He said a small amount of fuel can spread over a large area.

“Some of these photos, it’s like almost a rainbow sheen,” he said. “If you were to drop a teaspoon of oil, that could be what it would look like.”

He agreed that the photos made the spill look dramatic, but said it was already breaking up by Friday afternoon.

Because the spill was determined to be diesel, Bate said it’s unlikely to be related to large ships in the harbour.

The coast guard crew couldn’t find the origin of the spill, but Bate said it could have been caused in several ways, including someone refuelling a vessel.