Salvage teams working around the clock on the wrecked bulk carrier beached off Gibraltar passed a key milestone reporting that they have recovered nearly all of the oil aboard the vessel. The recovery efforts are continuing to focus on various parts of the ship while clean-up efforts also made progress in reducing the flow of oil onto Gibraltar’s beaches. As a result, the government is looking to step down starting on Tuesday, September 6 from the “major incident” to permit more activities in the port.
The focus now is on ensuring the vessel stays afloat whilst other contaminants are removed.
In this, they have been helped by generally light winds but this is to change with a transition to stronger winds this week.
UK and Ireland Spill Association members are involved in this incident. Ambipar Response, with support from Polyeco, has been working on behalf of the vessel owners and Oil Spill Response on behalf of the Port of Gibraltar.