Canarian Weekly
17-04-2015, 12:20
A Russian ship, Oleg Naydenov, sunk late on Tuesday night off the coast of Gran Canaria, raising environmental fears.
The vessel got into difficulties on Saturday night and was able to dock in port, but a serious fire was proving difficult to extinguish. As the fire continued to rage authorities took the decision to tow the boat out to deep water and sink the vessel. They believed the fire was uncontainable and was a threat to other ships.
All 72 crew members were safely removed from the stricken ship before it was moved about 15 miles south of Maspalomas. But the four day fire was more serious than first thought and had done major damage to some of the ship’s key sections.
Just before the ship sank it leaked a large amount of fuel into the Ocean. It’s believed the oil covers an area of 12 square kilometers. At first the spill seemed to be moving south of land, but yesterday, Thursday, the oil appeared to be closer than ever to the coast.
On Wednesday, the government activated the national plan against this type of possible marine pollution emergency. It was granted stage 0 status (the lowest of four stages) and sent three ships to the area. The Punta Salinas, Guardamar Talia and The Miguel de Cervantes steamed to the region to start the cleanup efforts.
Local politicians and environment groups say this is not enough but the Government minister in the Canaries, Maria del Carmen Hernandez Bento has defended the management so far saying “We have to take tough decisions in order to minimize risks. And the risk from the Oleg Naydenov is small. The fishing boat was towed to an area where currents in the sea should see any seepage heading south, away from the islands.”
That has not satisfied action groups. Greenpeace, Ecologists in Action, and SEO/BirdLife have all criticized the operation and some have lamented that no lessons have been learned from the “Prestige” tanker that sank in Galicia.
Comparisons with this case refer to the operation of moving the boat, which caused the vessel to break up and spill its load.
The Harbour Master of Las Palmas said the National Maritime Response Plan was properly activated as per marine environment guidelines.
As we go to print the clean up boats are getting to work and the Miguel de Cervantes has started to contain the oil slick. It has provided barriers, booms and skimmers to contain and collect the oil.
It’s understood that there was 1,409 tons of fuel on board the Oleg Naydenov, a vessel which has courted controversy recently. The ship was catalogued as a pirate vessel by the Senegalese authorities and organizations such as Greenpeace.
It’s registered out of Mermansk in Russia but is a frequent visitor to these shores. In fact the ship was inspected in 2013 and 2014 whilst in Las Palmas waters but was found to have nothing incriminating on board, and there was no evidence that the captain had broken any international fishing quotas. But the Senegalese see it differently and the ship was recently impounded in Dakar until a 1.2million dollar fine was paid.
This directly led to a major diplomatic incident between Senegal and Russia. It’s unclear how the fire broke out on the Oleg Naydenov and the lack of information has angered local politicians. The President of the Canary Islands, Paulino Rivero, complained publicly about the lack of information from the national government at the time of the incident and has demanded transparency.
He has asked Minister Ana Pastor, to explain why it decided to move the boat from the harbour in Las Palmas and what exact measures were taken after its sinking.
For her part Pastor has been in Gran Canaria to help coordinate action to prevent oceanic damage.
The sinking of the Oleg Naydenov has opened a can of worms and many experts feel that a major incident is on the cards. “We are playing with fire and it will end up burning us” said Jesus Cisneros who is Professor of Marine Pollution from the University of Las Palmas. He explained that the “Canary Islands are a black spot. This Archipelago is at high risk for a major incident in our waters because of three clear risk factors: the absence of a specific plan for such contingencies, traffic between the islands of between 5,000 and 6,000 ships per year and the possibility of an international conflict since the Moroccan fishing border is not universally recognised.”
There is no clear timetable on how long the clean up process will take but already the spill is hitting the innocent victims.
The Gran Canaria Cabildo has confirmed that a turtle covered in oil has been rescued, The turtle was struggling in the water but he has been temporarily rehoused in the wildlife recovery centre in Taliarte, in the municipality of Telde. The turtle will stay there for a few days while he is cleaned and allowed to rest before a planned release back into the ocean at the end of the weekend.
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/pollution-fears-russian-ship-sinks/)
The vessel got into difficulties on Saturday night and was able to dock in port, but a serious fire was proving difficult to extinguish. As the fire continued to rage authorities took the decision to tow the boat out to deep water and sink the vessel. They believed the fire was uncontainable and was a threat to other ships.
All 72 crew members were safely removed from the stricken ship before it was moved about 15 miles south of Maspalomas. But the four day fire was more serious than first thought and had done major damage to some of the ship’s key sections.
Just before the ship sank it leaked a large amount of fuel into the Ocean. It’s believed the oil covers an area of 12 square kilometers. At first the spill seemed to be moving south of land, but yesterday, Thursday, the oil appeared to be closer than ever to the coast.
On Wednesday, the government activated the national plan against this type of possible marine pollution emergency. It was granted stage 0 status (the lowest of four stages) and sent three ships to the area. The Punta Salinas, Guardamar Talia and The Miguel de Cervantes steamed to the region to start the cleanup efforts.
Local politicians and environment groups say this is not enough but the Government minister in the Canaries, Maria del Carmen Hernandez Bento has defended the management so far saying “We have to take tough decisions in order to minimize risks. And the risk from the Oleg Naydenov is small. The fishing boat was towed to an area where currents in the sea should see any seepage heading south, away from the islands.”
That has not satisfied action groups. Greenpeace, Ecologists in Action, and SEO/BirdLife have all criticized the operation and some have lamented that no lessons have been learned from the “Prestige” tanker that sank in Galicia.
Comparisons with this case refer to the operation of moving the boat, which caused the vessel to break up and spill its load.
The Harbour Master of Las Palmas said the National Maritime Response Plan was properly activated as per marine environment guidelines.
As we go to print the clean up boats are getting to work and the Miguel de Cervantes has started to contain the oil slick. It has provided barriers, booms and skimmers to contain and collect the oil.
It’s understood that there was 1,409 tons of fuel on board the Oleg Naydenov, a vessel which has courted controversy recently. The ship was catalogued as a pirate vessel by the Senegalese authorities and organizations such as Greenpeace.
It’s registered out of Mermansk in Russia but is a frequent visitor to these shores. In fact the ship was inspected in 2013 and 2014 whilst in Las Palmas waters but was found to have nothing incriminating on board, and there was no evidence that the captain had broken any international fishing quotas. But the Senegalese see it differently and the ship was recently impounded in Dakar until a 1.2million dollar fine was paid.
This directly led to a major diplomatic incident between Senegal and Russia. It’s unclear how the fire broke out on the Oleg Naydenov and the lack of information has angered local politicians. The President of the Canary Islands, Paulino Rivero, complained publicly about the lack of information from the national government at the time of the incident and has demanded transparency.
He has asked Minister Ana Pastor, to explain why it decided to move the boat from the harbour in Las Palmas and what exact measures were taken after its sinking.
For her part Pastor has been in Gran Canaria to help coordinate action to prevent oceanic damage.
The sinking of the Oleg Naydenov has opened a can of worms and many experts feel that a major incident is on the cards. “We are playing with fire and it will end up burning us” said Jesus Cisneros who is Professor of Marine Pollution from the University of Las Palmas. He explained that the “Canary Islands are a black spot. This Archipelago is at high risk for a major incident in our waters because of three clear risk factors: the absence of a specific plan for such contingencies, traffic between the islands of between 5,000 and 6,000 ships per year and the possibility of an international conflict since the Moroccan fishing border is not universally recognised.”
There is no clear timetable on how long the clean up process will take but already the spill is hitting the innocent victims.
The Gran Canaria Cabildo has confirmed that a turtle covered in oil has been rescued, The turtle was struggling in the water but he has been temporarily rehoused in the wildlife recovery centre in Taliarte, in the municipality of Telde. The turtle will stay there for a few days while he is cleaned and allowed to rest before a planned release back into the ocean at the end of the weekend.
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/pollution-fears-russian-ship-sinks/)