A barge tipped over off the coast of Canada's Vancouver Island yesterday, creating a diesel slick over a mile long that is threatening orca whale habitat. The barge, which was carrying logging equipment including a fuel truck, was just outside the boundary of an ecological reserve when it flipped. Diesel fuel dissipates and evaporates in the sun, so poses less of a threat than crude oil à la Exxon Valdez -- but it still doesn't make a very good whale dinner.

sources: CBC News, Victoria Times Colonist, The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail