The environmental impact of the oil spill from the sunken ship m.v. Rak is being evaluated, the Director General of Shipping said on Monday.

According to the Coast Guard, continuous trail of the oil leak from the vessel was observed up to 12 nautical miles.

A ‘very thick' layer of oil leak was spotted up to one nautical mile, ‘thick' layer of oil up to two nautical miles and, thereafter, only oil sheen was visible till 12 nautical miles, a statement issued by the DG Shipping said.

After receiving a report from the Coast Guard notifying the oil spill, the Director General of Shipping, Mr Satish Agnihotri, reviewed the situation, with officials from various agencies and the State Government authorities.

Coast Guard ships, Samudra Prahari and Sankalp, have been engaged in pollution response (PR) operation.

In order to neutralise peripheral oil patches, the Coast Guard has pressed one more ship Amrit Kaur into action.

A Dornier aircraft of the CG has also been deployed for PR operation from Daman.

The Coast Guard and the Maharashtra State Maritime Pollution Board have taken the oil samples from the proximity of the ship and onshore respectively for carrying out analysis.

The State Environment Department reported that oil patches have been seen at Gurai, Alibaug and proximate area besides Juhu Beach.

The oil streak is reported to have stretched up to 5-6 km along the Alibaug shoreline.

The local P & I correspondent is expected to mobilise suitable resources to either seal the source of leakage from the ship or debunker the oil from the sunken vessel soon, taking into account the prevailing sea and weather conditions in the proximity of casualty.

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