San Francisco Bay's fishing fleet has urged state and federal authorities to provide more training for their personnel in order to tackle oil spills.

According to the Sacramento Bee newspaper, ship workers in the area believe they could have boats manned and in the waters to clean up such hazards within an hour if properly instructed.

Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, said officials have been slow to respond to these calls.

"There's been no training and no one from the fishing fleet has heard from either the Coast Guard or OSPR (Office of Spill Prevention and Response) about this for a long time," he explained.

Mr Grader noted oil spill training was given to around 100 vessels following the wreck of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.

However, these programmes began to falter and were halted in 2005, he commented, largely due to financial restraints.

Environmental organisation San Francisco Baykeeper is currently a part of the Waterkeeper Alliance, which is providing support for the ongoing BP oil spill.

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