Martin Slater, director of operations at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said East Yorkshire’s coast was home to protected and significant colonies of seabirds including puffins and gannets, with many offshore on the sea before the nesting season.
A Greenpeace spokesperson said any impact would depend on factors including the amount and type of oil carried by the tanker, the fuel carried by both ships and how much of that, if any, had entered the water, plus the weather conditions.
One insurance specialist said the pollution risk was lower than if the tanker had been carrying crude oil. “A lot depends really on cargo carried, how many tanks were breached and how bad the fire is,” the insurance source said.
The coastguard said British government officials were working with salvage and insurance companies, adding both vessels remained on fire with aircraft monitoring the situation.
Mark Sephton, professor of organic geochemistry at Imperial College London, added the relatively small hydrocarbons of jet fuel could be degraded by bacteria more quickly than larger molecules. “As we are moving into warmer temperatures this will also speed up biodegradation rates,” he said.
The incident occurred in a busy waterway, with traffic running from the ports along Britain's northeast coast to the Netherlands and Germany, shipping industry sources said.
Maritime analytics website MarineTraffic said the 183m Stena Immaculate was anchored off Immingham, northeast England, when it was struck by the 140m Solong, which was en route to Rotterdam.
Ship insurer Skuld of Norway would only confirm the Solong was covered with it for protection & indemnity (P&I), a segment of insurance that covers environmental damage and crew injuries or fatalities.
Stena Immaculate's P&I insurer, which was listed as Steamship, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
**Reuters**