During June 2006, it was reported that there was a five mile long oil slick in the Menai Strait and some members who attended the Anglesey field meeting to this area in April 2006, have expressed some concern about it.
The spillage was of diesel fuel oil and had come from the disused Ferrodo Plant on the mainland shore of the strait near to Caernarfon. After consulting with members of the marine survey team at the Countryside Council for Wales in Bangor, and doing some shore surveys myself, it was considered by CCW that the event had not been serious enough to warrant a clean up operation, and it was expected that most of the oil would evaporate away.
There was one area at Gallows Point near Beaumaris on the Anglesey shore where there was a shimmer of oil on the surface of the water and a strong smell of diesel oil, see picture. Gallows Point forms a bay between it and Beaumaris Pier and the tidal currents in that area are not strong enabling the spillage to accumulate locally. In most other areas of the strait, the tidal currents are strong four times daily and the oil did not accumulate.
It appears from the observations I have made that the incident has not caused serious damage to the marine environment in that area and visits made six months after the event have shown that there is now no trace of it.
One good thing that has emerged from this event is that the Countryside Council for Wales is setting up an emergency response team consisting of experts and volunteers that can be called upon in the event of a major oil spillage.