On 22 December 2016, two supply ships owned by Maersk Group sank off Ushant, France, during a towing operation to Turkey where they were to be dismantled.
The hulls had already been cleaned in preparation for the dismantling. Nevertheless, in the following days, oil slicks, which could be the result of unpumpable residues, were observed in the area by French authorities.
In order to monitor if the hulls were causing further pollution, the French authorities requested additional CleanSeaNet images over a period of two months, within a radius of 15 km around the wrecks’ positions.
EMSA ordered a total of seven extra images to compliment the coverage already provided by the routine CleanSeaNet service over the area.
One benefit of the CleanSeaNet service is the possibility to provide additional monitoring capabilities over an area of interest at the request of a user with little additional effort; this at a minimum saves the user time and costs involved in deploying national assets, and in some cases provides possibilities for monitoring where they might not otherwise exist.
Source & Image credit: EMSA
