Oil spills

Any spills of oil or fuel from your boat should be dealt with immediately and cleaned up with special sorbent material.

You can buy sorbent pads from most chandlers or marine stores. Any oil or oily waste should be disposed of properly at your local transfer station or by a waste contractor.

Remember to:

• Check your engine for leaking fuel or oil.
• Clean up any oil in the bilges before turning on the pump.
• Soak up any floating oil with sorbent pads. Keep a stash of these on your boat. You can use newspaper or paper towels in an emergency.
• If you have an automatic bilge pump you must keep the bilges clear of oil at all times. You can install a bilge water filter that will remove most contaminants.
• Never mix detergent with oily bilge water before pumping. Most detergents are also contaminants.
• Make sure you monitor the situation when refuelling and always aim to refuel at a fuel pump rather than transferring fuel to your boat in containers. Have absorbent pads available to catch any fuel spills.

Report any oil or fuel spills to our 24 hour Pollution Hotline on 0800 884 883.