Crude oil patches wash up in St Ouen

Crude oil patches wash up in St Ouen

The oil may come from the stricken tanker Prestige, which polluted huge areas of the Spanish and French coastlines when it hit rocks and sank in November.

The Normandy coast has also been hit recently.Surfers say that small patches of thick black oil have been appearing for the last few weeks – the Jersey Surf School are concerned because they are taking hundreds of children on courses in the bay, which tomorrow will be in the spotlight as events begin to mark the 25th anniversary of the designation of Les Mielles as a conservation area.Instructor Mark Hodges said: ‘It’s not very nice.

People have been getting it on their wetsuits and boards and one patch washed up on the steps this morning.

Once you get it on your wetsuit it stays there.’A spokesman for Jersey Harbours said this morning that they were aware of the problem but that because of the small size of the patches and the fact that crude oil does not float on the surface, it was impossible to do anything about it.He said that reports from the French suggested that the oil was from the Prestige, which sank with 60,000 tonnes aboard.Officers from the water resources section of the Environmental Services Unit were at the scene this morning.

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