Dredger Sinks in Heysham Harbour

On Sunday morning, 2nd November, the County Council duty emergency planner was notified that a dredger, the Abigail H, had suddenly sunk whilst at the quayside in Heysham Harbour, although all hands were safe. Once all persons are confirmed safe in these incidents the LRF agencies' primary concerns are both the possibility of pollution affecting our coastline with the resultant clear up and also the potential for contamination of shellfish beds, which may necessitate closure notices being served. However, a small leakage of diesel was confined to the harbour where the port authorities were able to deal with it and emergency measures ensured that all tanks were sealed preventing further leaks occurring. The environment has been further safeguarded by the deployment of floating booms that would contain any pollutants that did emerge from the vessel.

On Wednesday 5th November the vessel was declared a total loss by the insurers and a salvage operation commenced to pump out the remaining 4000 litres of diesel on board, to prevent any leakage when the vessel is removed. The County Oil Pollution Officer continues to liaise with the Heysham Port authorities, the Secretary of State's representative and the Coastguards so that any change in circumstances can be quickly addressed.

As at Monday 17th November the vessel is still in Heysham Harbour but is secured in an upright position by numerous ropes attached to a fleet of excavators acting as anchor points. The risk of pollution has been minimised and a number of plans to refloat or lift the vessel are being considered by the insurers and other experts.

As the incident occurred entirely within port authority limits the Harbour Master has absolute command and control over the incident and has statutory duties to have oil pollution plans and responding arrangements in place to deal with any such incidents. Such incidents within port authority limits do not affect local authorities in anything other than a liaison role, unless there is concern of any pollution issues spreading outside of the port authority limits (which has not been the case with this incident).

The Port plan was activated and, as part of that plan/arrangements, oils spill response teams from Braemar Howells were(take out 'were') responded and have been on scene, with a full tier 2 response capability, 24/7 since the fist declaration of the incident and will remain until completion. They have deployed booms around the dredger to contain any loss, skimmed and cleaned any slight loss/sheen within the harbour and continue to monitor and will respond as necessary.

The Salvage Control Unit continues to operate as the wreck recovery work progresses