SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, TEXAS
MARCH 3, 2015
Gallons of oil spilled at the marina giving boat owners a
headache Tuesday.
When Shrimp Boat Owner Joe Martinez arrived at the marina
early in the morning, he noticed an odd smell emitting from the water.
"As soon as I got here, and I got off, I was waiting to
see if the fog was going to pick up,” said Joe Martinez, a shrimper. “I smelled
the really bad oil and diesel.”
A mixture of oil and diesel spilled around the marina
putting Martinez’s business at risk.
"If it kills the shrimp then we can’t come out here and
shrimp no more,” Martinez explained.
The marina received an anonymous call around 8 a.m. about
the spill.
U.S. Coast Guard was on the scene determining where the
spill started, officials with the Texas General Land Office said.
"We do have some boats and docks that will be stained a
little," said Gonzalo Pena, a natural resource specialist and response
officer for The Texas General Land Office.
About 30 gallons of oil spilled into the water.
"It will affect the environment to a point, but at this
point because it's so small. There's no mangroves or sea groves in this area so
we are pretty happy that no wildlife should be affected," said Pena.
"We’ve hired a contractor to boom this off and to throw
absorbent pads in the water and clean that up and dispose of it properly,” said
Mitchell Priest, a marine science technician for the Coast Guard.
Crews collected water samples, and they will go boat by boat
to see if they find the source of the leak.
"Now the wind and the tide are going up. It's going to
be a little hard to contain this," said Victor Moore, a forklift operator
at the South Point Marina.
If they find a person caused the spill, they will be issued
a citation and be fined for the cleanup, according to Moore.
Boat owners hope a spill does not happen again.
"About a couple months ago, a barge sank over there and
this whole place was filled with oil and diesel and fluids that was on that
boat came from over there," said Martinez.
Officials are trying to determine where this oil came from.