Cruise ship's arrival, ferry service unaffected by Tobago oil spill

Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said an oil spill last Wednesday has not affected operations at the Scarborough port, which welcomed more than 3,000 visitors from the Costa Fortuna cruise ship on Sunday.

At a media conference on Sunday, he said containment measures were able to limit the effect of the spill, which was caused by an overturned boat, later identified as the Gulf Stream, near Cove.

“From Thursday night into Friday morning we successfully installed booms at the Scarborough port. That is what allowed the inter-island ferry service to continue unabated and even for the cruise ship to be there today, to protect the port from the spill drifting into the harbour,” he said.

On Wednesday, at about 7.20 am, the THA through the emergency operations centre got initial reports of the spill near the Cove Eco-Industrial park in Tobago.

The first spill was detected six kilometres off the coast of Studley Park. The spill drifted 15 km west. There is a line of spilt oil 12 km long, which was detected heading into the Scarborough port.

On Thursday the spill was labelled as a national threat.

Augustine said the clean-up exercise was divided into eight major tasks, including containment.

“If we had not contained it, it could have drifted further east and west. Containment is what has allowed for us to keep it within a certain radius.”

Augustine said containment efforts are still ongoing with the instalment of secondary booms in strategic areas.