Poole Harbour oil-spill clean-up continues

Poole Harbour Commissioners say that good progress has been made with the clean-up operation of an oil leak in Poole Harbour.

They say that a total of 327 survey reports have been made, with aircraft surveillance and drones continuing to collect information.

Accordingly, the PHC report 31,000 litres of liquid being recovered between Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 March, which is effectively containing the oil leak.

Four containment booms are said to be in place along with absorbent booms, which is proving effective at containing oil that leaked into the harbour on Sunday.

The UK Health Security Agency has asked people to avoid the beaches and water in Poole Harbour area for recreational use until further updates. Including handgathering shellfish, swimming, watersports and fishing.

Lord Benyon said in response to an urgent commons question on Wednesday that, 'We are working very closely with the company here to get to the bottom of what caused this and make sure it does not happen again. The noble and right reverend Lord (Sentamu) raises the issue of this kind of incident taking place on a much larger scale in other parts of the world. There are measures that should be taken through corporate governance to make sure that companies that are polluting are held responsible through clear ESG guidelines.'