By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

Roughly 100 gallons of oil leaked into the waters of Saipan yesterday morning from a Singapore cargo vessel transporting cars to the island.
The Fujimarine, which carried the automobiles for Microl Corp., docked in the CNMI at 8 a.m. yesterday.
At 8:45, the Commonwealth Ports Authority alerted the Emergency Management Office about the oil spill incident.
According to Lt. Greg Schultz, the Coast Guard safety detachment supervisor on Saipan, the oil came from the vicinity of the Fujimarine.
“It appears that it may have come from the Fujimarine. We’re still in the process of conducting an investigation and we need commercial divers to get in there to find out,” he said.
The vessel was supposed to depart at 11 a.m. yesterday, but was ordered by the Coast Guard to remain in port.
“It’s not a large quantity but it continues to come out and so there is a downstream impact. We have to check everything,” Schultz said, adding that “our concern is always to prevent any impact on the environment.”
An oil boom shell was immediately deployed around the vessel to contain the leaking oil.
An investigation and inspection were conducted by the Coast Guard, the Commonwealth Ports Authority, the Emergency Management Office, the Division of Environmental Quality and Coastal Resources Management.
EMO executive director Greg Deleon Guerrero said the federal and CNMI governments are activating a unified command system.
“An oil response team is getting together right now and starting the work,” Deleon Guerrero said.
Variety learned that the agent for the vessel, A&T Shipping Services, is responsible for getting the commercial divers to look for the source of the leak.
“We’re still seeing oil from the vessel but it still needs to be confirmed by certified divers,” Deleon Guerrero said, adding that if the leak is proven to have come from the vessel, necessary repairs will be mandated as well as an immediate cleanup.
“They need to clean everything as soon as possible. The unified command will guide them in performing the necessary actions in this situation, and we will be monitoring to ensure the safety of the vessel and the environment,” he added.
Chris Tomokane, an environmental technician from DEQ, and CRM enforcement officer John San Nicolas said they are looking into possible damage to marine life, coral and the shoreline.
In a press statement yesterday, the administration said divers had located a hole near the rudder of the vessel as the origin of the leak and had closed it.
Officials said that there was no immediate threat to sea life.