Scientists and environment officials were keeping a close watch for around 30 killer whales Monday night following an oil spill that could threaten the habitat they've frequented for years.
At least two pods of orcas were spotted in the Robson Bight area after a barge overturned and dumped a loaded diesel truck into the water near an ecological reserve off northern Vancouver Island on Monday morning.
“There couldn't have a been a worse time and a worse place for this to happen,” said Jennifer Lash, executive director of Living Oceans. “This is when there's whales all over the place up here and particularly in that exact spot.”
The area is an ecological reserve and is off-limits to boat or human traffic. However, a spokeswoman with British Columbia's Ministry of the Environment said the barge had been travelling just outside the boundary of the Reserve when it overturned.
It dumped a diesel truck with a 10,000-litre capacity into the water, as well as an ambulance and pickup trucks, Kate Thompson said.
But Ms. Lash said reports from the scene suggest the barge was, in fact, inside the protected area.
“We've got a witness saying [the oil] is streaming up, and this is definitely inside the reserve, about 100 to 200 metres inside the reserve boundary,” she said. “So the ship was in a place where it should not have been.”
It's not known how much fuel the truck was carrying, but a slick of between two and eight kilometres was reported.
A clean-up crew hired by the company that owns the barge was bringing up equipment to Robson Bight on Monday night.
“What we don't know is whether they're going to be able to do anything [Monday night],” Ms. Thompson said. “It's fairly remote, pretty dark.
“It's a question of safety issues and whether they'd be able to see anything.”
Environment officials said their first priority was to figure out a way to safeguard the many species of marine life that live in the ecological reserve.
They convened a regional environmental emergency team, involving provincial and federal agencies, via conference call to decide how to assist in the environment cleanup, said Chris LaRock, an emergency response officer for Environment Canada.
“We do everything we can as quickly as we can,” he said, adding Environment Canada was running models of the oil slick to determine its size and trajectory.
Scientists haven't yet figured out why the whales seem to prefer the pebbly beaches of Robson's Bight over other areas, but it is one of the only places on Vancouver Island where they return on a regular basis.
“If this oil ends up on the beach at low tide, then it will be coming out of the gravel when the tide comes back up,” Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard, a research scientist who studies the whales' habitat at Robson Bight.
“Whether that will deter the whales, keep them away, we don't know at this point.”
A school of dolphins was spotted swimming alongside the slick but didn't turn into it, Dr. Barrett-Lennard said, and no oil-covered birds had been spotted either.
“It's fairly volatile, so if it were concentrated in one area, a thick coating of oil, the principle danger to critters like whales or dolphins is breathing in the fumes, particularly if there's not much wind,” he said.
Short-term skin exposure to diesel fuel won't be too toxic to marine life, Dr. Barrett-Lennard added.
Ms. Lash said she's concerned the equipment at the bottom of the water will pose a hazard for whales trying to get up onto the rocky beach.
“You can't have a whale swimming through an oil spill and it can't be good for them,” she said. “You can only assume that's going to have some sort of negative impact.”
Owners at Ted LeRoy Trucking, the company reported to own the barge, could not be reached for comment.
