Oil spill cleanup on River Bann

The boat which was damaged was half submerged on Wednesday. As a boat owner I was impressed with the way the situation was managed and pollution minimised by a prompt recovery of the craft.

This incident actually happened at 09.15 on Wednesday morning as i was present in the area at the time. A fast rescue was carried out by two members of local marine business tonys marine service who where on scene within a few minutes.the most important thing was that the 4 people on board were rescued safely along with there belongings. from what i seen all the appropriate authorities where on the scene in good time and salvage of the vessel was the next priority. it took roughly 36 hours to re float the vessel and remove it from the area which in my mind was quite quick considering the boat was a 40ft cruiser and the area it was in was inaccessible from the road. Hats off to all the guys involved in the operation and happy boating to everyone in the area.

The boat actually hit an broken marker post, that was unmarked and about 5 cm above the waterline, and sunk Wednesday, mid morning and was raised and out of the river by Thursday night. NIEA had a boom around the boat and another one down stream. Well done to all involved.

The boat was sunk on Wednesday morning and was then recovered and brought to Coleraine Harbour late the following evening.

The boat sunk on Tuesday night....... "Yesterday" would infer Wednesday? 3 days to refloat a vessel, that has the potential to pollute such a delicate ecosystem, is way to long. This was badly managed.