TAMPA, Fla. – The Captain of the Port re-opened Tampa Bay to all vessel traffic without restrictions at 10:52 a.m., Friday, after responding to a diesel fuel spill after two vessels collided Thursday at about 8 p.m., approximately two miles northwest of Manbirtee Key, Fla.
The fishing vessel Maranatha, an 80-foot trawler homeported in Irvington, Ala., and the Coastal, a 95-foot barge, collided causing a four-by-eight-inch gash in Maranatha’s starboard forward fuel tank. The damaged fuel tank held approximately 4000 gallons of diesel fuel and was estimated to have released approximately 800 -1000 gallons of diesel fuel into the water. The leak from the fishing vessel was secured shortly after assessment of the damage. Spill response contractors have completed on-scene clean-ups and any remaining fuel is unrecoverable and evaporating. The Maranatha has been cleared to proceed to East Bay with a Coast Guard escort. The Coastal and accompanying tugboat have been cleared to proceed on it’s voyage.
An HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air station Clearwater, Fla., the Coast Guard Cutter Hawk, a Station St. Petersburg, Fla., 25-foot small boat crew, and Coast Guard pollution responders along with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the monitoring of the spill.
Coast Guard Cutter Hawk is an 87-foot coastal patrol boat homeported in St. Petersburg.
