POOLE Harbour Commissioner has said it understands the leak started as early as 7am on Sunday – nine hours before a major incident was declared.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday afternoon, Poole Harbour Commissioner CEO Jim Stewart added he is “pleasantly surprised” the leak is not as serious as initially thought.
A full-scale clean-up operation is in progress, which will “certainly” last until the end of the week and people are still being advised to stay out of the water.
Mr Stewart said: “We are pleasantly surprised that it is not as serious as we first thought.
“Currently, there seems to be a substantial reduction in oil slicks from yesterday and there are probably two places in the harbour which currently has got the black crude oil.
“It is difficult to say how long it will take to clear up. Certainly, the clean-up operation will continue for the rest of the week.”
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He said there are no substantiated reports at this stage concerning reports of wildlife being injured or affected after around six tonnes of crude oil leaked into the harbour.
The aftermath of the incident has also been described by Mr Stewart as being Tier 2, a medium-sized operation. Tier 3 would require government intervention.
More than 100 people have been involved in the cleaning operation since 7am today, with helicopters, drones, vessels and shore patrols all being deployed to assist.
He added: “Fishermen were contacted last night. There is a shellfish operation in the harbour, there are oyster beds and mussel beds, and they have been contacted by Port Health and as I understand it, they have been told to stand off until further information is available.”
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Captain Brian Murphy, harbourmaster and marine port director, said he is “very relieved” the situation is not as bad as first feared.
He said: “The first indications were that it was more than it transpired to be. What we are dealing with now is much less than it was first indicated.
“We know roughly the quantity we are dealing with and we are basically hunting it down and tracking it, assessing all the shoreline, we have covered 16 kilometres of shoreline by foot, drone and vessel and we will continue that process.”
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