Vancouver residents scramble to clean beach after offshore oil spill

Vancouver residents scrambled Thursday to scrub the shoreline along a popular downtown beach after a foreign cargo ship leaked roughly 2,800 liters of bunker fuel into the city's English Bay Wednesday night.

The toxic spill raised questions about a slow response by the federal coast guard and port authority, with Vancouver city officials complaining they were not notified about the problem until 12 hours after the leak was initially reported.

On Thursday afternoon, officials told reporters they had so far recovered about 1,400 liters of the leaked fuel.

In a news conference Thursday afternoon in Vancouver, Roger Girouard, head of the Canadian Coast Guard western region, said that the spill was being treated as either bunker fuel or raw crude in a "worst-case scenario" until test results came back.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a statement that management of the spill fell under the responsibility of the Canadian Coast Guard and the port authority. However, on the shore of English Bay Thursday afternoon, no one from those authorities were visible, as a handful of local residents worked in rubber gloves with scrubbers and rakes to clean the beach.

A volunteer, who called himself Michael, said he lived only two blocks from here for 25 years. "This is my beach, but it has just been amazing the lack of city response here. It's stunning that we saw one city worker all day down here."

Another nearby resident, Susan Santice, told Xinhua she was very sad to see the oil spill affecting the environment.

"I was in tears most of the morning. And you see, I saw a mother duck with her about eight babies just swimming by and all these crows and seagulls, everything. We have got lots of seals going past here. And this oil is going to affect everything."

Earlier in the day, an oil-absorbing boom surrounded a red and black ship named Marathassa. Several vessels with special equipment were seen cleaning up fuel near the suspect ship.

Volunteers from the city's fire department were also dispatched to keep people and animals away from the water.

Ann Pacey from Vancouver Fire Department volunteer corp told Xinhua it was a really heavy substance. It's sticky and a threat to public health.

"It is a toxic substance. The idea is people know about it, just to stay back and away from areas where they might become exposed. It was really just to help out because a lot of people are not aware what is happening here," Pacey added. Endi