The alarm about the diesel spill that occurred almost four miles from Arrecife dissipates

Neither Maritime Rescue nor a helicopter attached to 112 of the Government of the Canary Islands have detected traces of the fuel spilled by a recreational boat on the afternoon-night of this Friday, January 15, almost four nautical miles from the Port of Arrecife, according to the Security and Emergency Consortium of the Cabildo of Lanzarote.

Around 9:00 p.m. this Friday, Maritime Rescue informed CECOES 1-1-2 that a recreational boat named 'Aurora' had spilled into the ocean the contents of an auxiliary diesel tank that was on deck and fell into the sea. After the warning, Maritime Rescue carried out a search that same night without noticing any traces of the spill.

At the first hour of the morning of this Saturday, January 16, the area was scrutinized again without detecting fuel stains or odors, so the hypothesis that it could have evaporated is being considered. A helicopter from 112 of the Government of the Canary Islands joined the search efforts, which, after a long and exhaustive aerial reconnaissance, did not see any trace of the spill either.

The spill would have occurred at coordinates Latitude 28º 59.76 N and Longitude 013º 28.22 W, at a distance of about 3.7 nautical miles from the Port of Arrecife. The volume of fuel spilled would be about 1,000 liters. Apparently, the tank fell into the water due to the poor condition of the sea, although, subsequently, the crew that was on board the boat itself was able to recover the tank.

In the note initially issued by CECOES 1-1-2, there was talk of 20,000 -25,000 liters of fuel, but the auxiliary tank that fell into the sea does not reach 2,000 liters of capacity, according to the Security and Emergency Consortium. At first, this circumstance generated some confusion about the true extent of the accident, which is now dispelled.