HALIFAX — Military personnel spent a second day cleaning up a spill of diesel fuel Thursday from a Royal Canadian Navy warship into Halifax Harbour.

Lt.-Cmdr. Bruno Tremblay says four small boats and 20 personnel worked through the day to attempt to soak up fuel floating on the surface of the water.

He said the cleanup was on the Dartmouth side of the harbour and also involved employees of Environment Canada.

Tremblay said 8,000 to 10,000 litres of fuel was spilled from HMCS St. John’s during an internal transfer of diesel on the frigate early Wednesday morning.

The navy expects to have a more precise figure on the amount of fuel that spilled following its investigation of the leak.

The base commander of CFB Halifax described the spill as “significant” on Wednesday.

This is the second spill from a Canadian navy ship in the harbour since 2011.

On March 16, 2011, it took the navy more than five hours to stop a leak from the supply ship HMCS Preserver.

More than 14,000 litres of fuel leaked into the harbour that day.