THIRTY harbour staff from across South Devon were scrambled to tackle an emergency oil spill yesterday.

But environmentalists had no reason to be concerned because the real-time event was a only a training exercise.

Staff from Dartmouth and Torbay were called to Torquay as part of the obligatory Oil Spill Contingency Plan.

They were tackling an imagined Tier 2 oil spill — a mid-range exercise — to keep staff prepared for such a real-life event.

Torquay harbourmaster Kevin Mowat and his Dartmouth counterpart Dave White were overseeing the day-long practice run, with staff installing an inflatable containment boom across the mouth to Torquay harbour.

Mr Mowat said: "By law we have to have the training exercise at least every three years. We were doing it for real.

"It involved the scenario of a cruise ship being hit by a vessel off Torquay. It was an imagined spill, and we were using booms and recovery equipment to secure the oil.

"We were going to brief the Herald Express in advance, but we wanted to treat it the way we would if it actually happened, so we didn't call you — but within 10 minutes you were on to us.

"That's interesting, because we were trying to make it as realistic as we could. By doing so we could ensure everything worked as it should and everyone was up to date.

"We were doing it as if the oil was coming towards the harbour, and in the afternoon we were simulating getting the oil out of the water and deciding what to do with it."

As well as staff from Dartmouth and Torbay, the harbourmasters were in close contact with Devon County Council and the Environment Agency, among others.

Dave White said: "We were very impressed with the speed that they got the booms out there. It's very physically hard to move them over land and they had to be inflated.

"We chose a time of year when it's relatively quiet, so as to cause as little disruption to people as possible."

South Devon endured a real-life oil spill in 1990 when Brixham-based trawler Dionne Marie caused a metre-long split in the side of the 118,000-ton tanker Rosebay.

The tanker lost 1,100 tonnes of crude oil, and councils had to take action to avoid a widespread environmental catastrophe.

But Mr Mowat was keen to stress that Wednesday's training exercise was part of a Government remit, rather than a response to anything that might happen soon.

He added: "I must stress that the exercise wasn't related to the ships anchored off Torquay in recent months.

"What's going on out there is extremely safe. Ships at anchor don't usually tend to come to any grief.

"If something serious happened to any of those tankers, it'd be a national event. Our training exercise was for something that could be dealt with locally.

"Having significant boat activity off the Bay has been part of our culture, so people don't tend to worry about it. They're well educated about the realities."