Photo by Stig Nygaard
We're now on Day 8 of the North Sea Oil Spill. Day 6 if you're counting from when Shell actually told us about it. Day 3 if you're counting from when Shell admitted it was worse than they initially led us to believe.
And, according to Shell, it could go on for weeks.
The secondary leak is apparently coming from a relief valve on the 30-year-old pipe which needs a human being to physically shut it off. This means working out a plan with all manner of health and safety issues, hence the fact that it could possibly take weeks.
In fact, Shell are claiming that this is not a "second leak", even though it's in a different place to the first one. Apparently because it's the same pipe with the same oil source, this means it's the same leak. Just in two separate places. Uh-huh.
Meanwhile, the pipe itself still contains hundreds of tonnes of oil leaking into the sea at a rate, according to Shell, of one barrel per day. And the surface slick has increased in size to 16 square miles.
Because oil is a UK issue, Marine Scotland's response has mostly been limited to fish, water and sediment sampling, and keeping fishing vessels out of the area. They're apparently sending an ornithologist up in a plane today to have a look after Shell reported seeing a bird covered in oil. We can only hope that he sees nothing.
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