Volunteers survey impact of 10 Feb oil spill

This morning, NParks and volunteers headed out to survey the impact of the 10 Feb 80-tonne oil spill near Sisters Island.

NParks and volunteers surveying for oil spill impact.
Photo by Debby Ng on twitter

Thanks to live tweets by Ivan Kwan ‏@VaranusSalvator and Debby Ng ‏@torvaanser we had a live update of the survey. They saw a sea turtle! Although some oil sheen was encountered, most of the waters seem alright. Nevertheless, Ivan reports "Oil from the spill may have drifted further south with the currents, but could return to local waters as part of daily current shifts" and "there may be more checks depending on what MPA reports."


Update 11 Feb: Rene Ong shared on facebook "Checked out the shores of St John's Island, to assess how badly yesterday oil spill have affected the island. There are boats (probably from MPA) still cleaning the spill, and bags of polluted sand that were cleared out, waiting for disposal. But these bags also includes those polluted sand from previous oil spills. There are obvious signs of oil slick on the seawater. Also some kind of dispersant? scattered in the water. Saw some marine life. One of the Common Sea Stars, a juvenile, seems to have some oil slick on it while others seem fine... The smell of oil is also present..." She also checked St John's Island western shore facing Sisters Island and said "There wasn't any obvious sign of the oil spill. No smell."

The St. John's Island Marine Laboratory facebook page also updated their photos of oil spill impact to include yesterday's oil spill.

Update 11 Feb: MPA issues a press release "Following the recent three collisions resulting in oil spillage, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) is conducting investigations to determine the causes of the collisions and if there were systemic issues that need to be addressed. While awaiting the outcome of these investigations, MPA will implement several measures with immediate effect to minimise future marine incidents." Here's the full press release, also on wildsingapore news.