DFO closes fishery in Salluit during fuel spill clean up

Desgagnés’ M/T Sarah sits anchored at Salluit Oct. 8 while crews clean up a diesel spill. DFO closed the fishery Oct. 9 as a preventative measure. (PHOTO COURTESY OF PAULUSIE SAVIADJUK)

(Updated at 4:40 p.m., Oct. 9)

The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has temporarily closed Salluit Bay to harvesting following a fuel leak outside the Nunavik community Oct. 7.

In a notice sent out to Nunavik’s hunting, trapping and fishing organizations Oct. 9, the DFO said the fishery in Salluit fjord is “closed for all species, as a preventative measure, until further notice.”

An updated notice later in the day reduced that closure to Salluit Bay.

That’s following a diesel leak from a commercial tanker that was offloading fuel to the community.

Transport Desgagnés’ M/T Sarah was making its final delivery of the season that day and crews were in their final hour of offloading the fuel when winds picked up and crews has to quickly halt operations.

The company says it appears as though the 2,400-foot line used to transfer fuel from the vessel to Salluit’s tank farm collided with the props of the vessel as crews tried to cap the line.

Desgagnés workers had just discharged 200,000 litres of jet fuel, and were almost done offloading another 1.8 million litres of diesel fuel when they noted the leak.

But the company said no more than 3,000 litres spilled into the Salluit’s waterfront, which sits along a narrow bay off the Hudson Strait.

Since then, crews have begun to clean up the spill, with the help of the CCGS Terry Fox, using booms and absorbent material.

Officials with Quebec’s environment department will visit the community to oversee the clean-up and ensure the area is decontaminated.

Transport Desgagnés president Serge Le Guellec was also on his way to Salluit to meet with the company’s crew and municipal officials Oct. 9.

For more information on the fisheries’ closure, Nunavimmiut can call DFO’s Quebec region at 418-569-7433.

This DFO map shows the area now closed due to possible oil contamination.