The Vancouver Sun reports in its Saturday edition for a city that likes to think of itself as green and environmentally friendly, Wednesday's oil spill in English Bay has the potential to put a dent in that image, a University of B.C. economist says. The Sun's Derrick Penner writes the extent of the hit will depend on how long the environmental damage lasts from the spill of about 2,800 litres of ship bunker fuel, says Ngaio Hotte, a resource economist in UBC's Fisheries Centre. By midday Friday, the Coast Guard reported that 80 per cent of the spill had been contained on the water and cleanup efforts would turn to area beaches where oil came ashore in Stanley Park and on the North Shore. A lot of Vancouver's tourism is linked to the ocean. Even seaside sightseeing depends on a perception of cleanliness. Mr. Hotte authored a Fisheries Centre research project that estimated the potential economic impact of a major oil spill on B.C.'s North Coast related to Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project, which would bring oil-tanker traffic to the region. On the North Coast, the researchers evaluated the potential impacts on sectors such as the commercial fishing industry, recreational fishing and tourism.