On July 26, 2016, Matt Abbott, the Conservation Council’ Fundy Baykeeper, was quoted in the Journal Metro de Montreal following the release of an NRDC report that’s sounding the alarm on a massive increase of supertankers set to ship the dirtiest oil in the world across the Atlantic Ocean every year.
“TransCanada and Irving Oil would have you believe that we live in a fantasy world where tanker accidents never happen, pipelines will never break and never bitumen flowing. It seems to be a nice place, but we have to live in reality, ” said Abbott.
According to the Fundy Baykeeper, the question is not whether there will be a spill, but when.
The report, authored by the National Resource Defence Council (NRDC) in partnership with CCNB, and other environmental organizations, says the nearly 300 supertankers loaded with roughly 76 to 127 Olympic-size pools of thick black bitumen tar sludge would pose a massive threat for nearby marine life—in the form of deafening ocean noise, vassal collisions, and heightened risks of major oil spills.
“It shows that the NEB did not fully consider the marine impacts,” he lamented.
Given the lack of thorough research into the marine impacts, The NRDC report is calling for a moratorium be put in place on the use supertankers carrying tar sands oil in the Bay of Fundy.