The U.S. Coast Guard and emergency crews from Wareham to Falmouth are responding to an approximately 350 gallon oil spill following an incident with a tugboat early Thursday morning.

A Reinauer Transportation tugboat, "Justice," was escorting an oil barge through the Cape Cod Canal at around midnight when one of its two propellers touched bottom and broke off, explained U.S. Coast Guard Commander Jeannot Smith.

The 10-foot by 10-foot propulsion drive holds approximately 625 gallons of gear oil, but only approximately 300 gallons of the oil entered the water, said Smith, noting that the rest was recovered from the boat.

"We have light sheening on both ends of the canal," Smith said at mid-morning on Thursday.

Crews from local agencies are checking areas to see how far the oil has traveled, and are placing absorbent boom around shellfish beds and other areas that need to be protected, in an effort to isolate the spill. Coast Guard officials pointed out that gear oil is "more persistent" than fuel oil.

"My primary goal is to protect the environment," said Smith.

Reinauer Transportation is based in Staten Island, N.Y. The company is working with an environmental company to clean up the oil.

"Environmental safety is of the utmost importance to Reinauer — and care of the environment is paramount," said Bert Reinauer, vice-president of the company. "As soon as we learned about the accident, our emergency team rushed to the scene with our environmental cleanup crew to contain and clean up the spill."

The crewman responsible for steering the tug was tested for drugs and alcohol. The alcohol test was negative, and an independent lab is processing the drug test, Reinauer said.

Reinauer noted that the company is "fully cooperating" with the Coast Guard, and is conducting an internal investigation of the incident.

"We are very sorry this accident occurred," Reinauer said," and we are devoting all our resources and working with the U.S. Coast Guard's investigation to pinpoint the cause, and be certain it does not happen again."

The broken equipment remains at the bottom of the canal, but is off to the side. Divers and a crane barge are expected to recover it this afternoon.

"We don't appear to have a hazard to navigation," Smith said.

The Cape Cod Canal was closed to boat traffic for a short time this morning while officials determined whether the propulsion drive caused a hazard.

The Wareham and Onset fire departments responded, as did the Wareham Harbormaster Department and Wareham Health Agent.

The Mass. Department of Environmental Protection, Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, State Police Dive Team, Bourne Fire, Bourne Department of Natural Resources, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were also at the scene. Marion Fire and Falmouth Fire provided oil spill response equipment.

"We've had incredible operations from all local agencies," Smith noted.

Wareham Week will update this story when more information becomes available.