The ‘Lysblink Seaway’, which ran aground at around 0200 on Wednesday 18 February, has been surrounded by an absorbent boom in an attempt to prevent the oil from harming the surrounding area, according to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). The leak is coming from the starboard side of the grounded tanker, but is reported to be in very small quatities.

‘The salvage company and DFDS are currently working on getting the ship afloat,’ said DFDS in a statement, but weather conditions have so far prevented attempts to free the vessel from the rocks.

A team from Svitzer Salvage, the same company that helped recover the Hoegh Osaka from the Bramble Bank, are on board (tand conducting a full survey of damage, with two slavage tugs standing by. There is a temporary exclusion zone of 100 metres around the grounded tanker.

The vessel’s nine crew currently remain on board, none of whom were injured in the incident. The 7,500 tonne 394ft-long (120m) long vessel, is UK registered and was on passage from Belfast to Skogn in Norway with a cargo of around 50 tonnes of waste paper on board.