Gibraltar Police arrest captain of ship responsible for oil spill

The Royal Gibraltar Police (RGP) have arrested the captain of the Gas Venus, the ship that caused an oil spill that occurred yesterday in the bay of Algeciras, when he was carrying out bunkering (fuel transfer operation between ships) in front of the anchorage of west of the port of Gibraltar.

As reported to EFE by sources close to the investigation, this is a 56-year-old man, who is being investigated for a crime of pollution, after the oil spilled into the sea due to an overflow from the ship's tank.. The RGP has reported the search for a Korean interpreter to help the investigation.

Meanwhile, the work to contain the spill continues, for which the port of Gibraltar remains closed. At the moment, the spill remains in the area of the Rock, with no traces of hydrocarbons reaching the neighboring Spanish beaches of La Línea de la Concepción, Los Barrios and Algeciras.

The first indications suggest that the impact of the oil spill has been limited to the area of Camp Bay and Rosia Bay and its surroundings, as the Gibraltarian authorities have confirmed through drone images and the overflight of a Spanish helicopter..

Likewise, the Gibraltarian Government assures that “no free-floating oil slicks have been observed moving away from this area, although continuous monitoring is being carried out and may change with the tides”.

The Gibraltar Port Authority put an oil spill contingency plan in place in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, while suspending all port operations to ensure that all resources were available to help combat the spill and make deal with the incident as quickly and efficiently as possible.