Mysterious Oil Spill Sparks National Emergency in Trinidad and Tobago

• An overturned vessel has caused a huge oil spill along Trinidad and Tobago’s coastline, in what the Caribbean country’s prime minister described as a “national emergency” on Sunday.
• The spill occurred on February 7 off the southern shores of Tobago Island, and about 15 kilometres of the coastline “is now blackened,” according to the country’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM).
• In a news conference Sunday, Prime Minister Keith Rowley said that “the situation is not under control, and origins of the vessel have not yet been identified.” He went on to note that “This is a national emergency and therefore, it will have to be funded as an extraordinary expense. However, the government is not certain of the “full scope and scale” of what is going to be required.
• The spill occurred during Carnival season, one of the country’s biggest tourist attractions. “The best part of Tobago’s economy is its tourism, so it is important that we be cognizant that we don’t expose the tourism product to this kind of thing, and because this has happened, we have to contain it,” the prime minister said.
• Authorities installed booms - floating barriers - to prevent the spill from spreading to other areas, said Farley Augustine, the chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly. Officials have also dispatched divers to try to plug the leak but have not been successful.

 (Source: CNN)