‘HEART-BREAKING’

By John Culatto

A MARINE protection group has highlighted the ‘heart-breaking’ Gibraltar oil spill that will affect local sea life for ‘at least a decade’.

The Nautilus Project insists the OS 35 spill will be ‘extremely detrimental’ to the Rock.

Co-founder Lewis Stagnetto explained the visible ‘black stuff’ is just the tip of the iceberg as the oil has now mixed with the water stifling fish breeding ‘for a long time’. And with the salvage company now planning to lift and extract the shipwreck, he now fears ‘residual oil and diesel within the pipes which could be released into the sea’.

Stagnetto and his team have helped government agencies

Green groups claim oil spill effects will last a decade

to scoop away the thick oil sludge and tarballs on Gibraltar beaches over the past year.

The experienced marine biologist described the ‘gruelling process’ of cleaning up after two specific spills were caused by

WRECK: Still visiable off the rock and (below)

Nautilus members at work

Easterly storms. “The incident and leaks have been detrimental to our marine environment,” Stagnetto told the Olive Press “The damage is evident right along our coastline with signs of stress visible along the rocky shore,” he added. Nautilus Group volunteers were some of the first on the scene, raising the alarm and then helping to clear away the oil.

“It’s heart-breaking at times especially when you see the damage that these vessels can inflict on our marine ecosystem,” Stagnetto said. And he added that the visible sludge was not the worst of it.

“Whilst it is true that what washes ashore is an issue, the main concern comes from the vertical mixing of the oil within the water column.

“This creates a disturbance gradient which affects the reproductive cycles of many benthic invertebrates and fish.

“These effects are known to persist in the ecosystem for at least a decade after the initial oil spill meaning that our marine wildlife will be dealing with these effects for a long time yet.”

He now hopes that ships bunkering in Gibraltar will all be double-hulled to avoid this sort of incident in the future.

SWITZERLAND’S ambassador to the UK has visited Gibraltar. Markus Leitner called in at Number Six to get the latest on EU treaty talks as well as discuss ‘a number of issues of common interest’ with Chief Minister Fabian Picardo. Switzerland and Gib both have their own finance centres, while Leitner was also visiting a departing friend, longstanding Swiss honorary consul Eleonora Gherardi. He was also introducing her successor Andreas Businger.

Natural boost

A NEW Natural History Museum is set to open this autumn at the Parson’s Lodge building overlooking Camp Bay in the south of Gibraltar.

Gibraltar’s Government announced the project after its National Museum in Bomb House Lane ran out of space for new exhibits. It will leave the current museum site to cater for culture and history while Parson’s Lodge will exhibit all natural history apart from the prehistoric past. The move will free Bomb House Lane to expand its cultural and historical exhibits. The Department of Heritage chose the Parson’s Lodge Battery for its historical and natural significance.

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