The investigation into an oil spill in Algoa Bay that has led to the rescue of dozens of tarnished African penguins has gone global.Photographs of a large oil slick that appeared in the Bay last Tuesday were sent to the UK for analysis.And, according to Captain Nigel Campbell of the SA Maritime Safety Authority, UK officials believe that the spill was not caused by bunker oil that spilled into the Bay last Sunday during a ship to ship transfer in which about 100 litres of oil spilled into the Bay.Campbell said that initial slick was cleaned-up, but he says a new oil slick appeared two days later."On Tuesday a large slick was seen in the Bay. We immediately started cleaning up and took samples which are in Pretoria"
The results are expected by tomorrow afternoon. The photographs indicate that it did not appear to be the same type of oil as the bunkers being loaded"Campbell says the UK experts who assessed photographs sent to them concluded that the new slick was not caused by the bunker oil that had been spilled during the ship to ship transfer."What we suspect happened, was a passing ship pumped it's bulges into the water. We also found oil at Maitlands. We have been flying aerial patrols along the Bay in the area and down the coast.
At this stage there have been no more reports of oil. Sanparks have joined on the flights as well" he said.Meanwhile, the dozens of oil-soaked penguins are being treated at two centres in the Province, the main one being Sanccob's facility at Cape St Francis.Sancobb's Juanitha Raath, says it could take up to a month or more to clean and rehabilitate the soaked birds depending on their condition when brought in.She's also repeated their appeal to the public to provide towels and newspaper used to clean the animals."We are going through a lot of towels. At the moment we are caring for about 60 chicks and we need the towels to line the crates with. We change it quite often to stay hygienic" she said.
Towels can be dropped off at the SANCOBB facilities at Cape St Francis or at the Wimpy in Jeffrey's Bay.
- Unit 1, 71 Mangold Street, Newton Park, PE
- 27 Hurd Street, Newton Park, PE
- Building No.3, 21 Barton Rd, Cotswold- Zandi - 041 365 1275
