Coast guard officials say the merchant tanker Nanny, which is owned by Woodward's Oil Ltd., ran aground on a sandbar Wednesday in Simpson Strait, about 50 kilometres southwest of the community of Gjoa Haven in western Nunavut.
"The coast guard ship Henry Larsen has just entered the area. I believe it's at anchor just off of Gjoa Haven as we speak," Larry Trigatti, an environmental response official with the coast guard, told CBC News on Thursday afternoon.
"It's monitoring the situation by helicopter. As you can imagine, there are some shoals in the area, so we want to be very careful in going into that zone."
Woodward's is a major oil supplier to Canada's Arctic. The tanker has been carrying diesel to resupply Gjoa Haven and other remote communities in the region.
No diesel is believed to have spilled, and the ship's crew is safe, Trigatti said. The ship is a modern double-hulled product tanker, according to the coast guard.
Last month, another tanker owned by Woodward's ran aground near Pangnirtung, located in southern Baffin Island.
The tanker had finished unloading a bulk shipment of gasoline on Aug. 8 when it became grounded in the local harbour, tipping at an angle in low tide.
No fuel spilled from the ship, which eventually became dislodged in high tide within hours. But the incident alarmed Pangnirtung community officials, who said they are not prepared to deal with a major fuel spill.
