After the initial confirmation of oil spill coming from Grande America’s sinking, French authorities have sighted another oil slick originating from the sunken RoRo in the Bay of Biscay.
The French Navy and Spain’s maritime search and rescue agency revealed that there is a third oil spill in the area of the incident, covering an area of about 5 km2.
According to Premar Atlantique’s statement, despite weather conditions still being very degraded in the area of the sinking of the Grande America, the anti-pollution operations started on March 15. They are coordinated on the area of operations by the director of Center of Expertise Practices of Antipollution Control (CEPPOL).
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Moreover, in light of the harsh weather conditions, the authorities were unable to locate the earlier sighted oil slicks which measured 13 by 7 km and 9 by 7 km, local media reported, citing Stéphane Doll, director of Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (Cedre).
The oil spills were covering an area of about 20 km and authorities noted that they were moving at a speed of about 30 km per day and could reach the French coast by the middle of this week.
The owner of Grande America, Grimaldi, informed that the vessel had 2.210 vehicles and 365 containers onboard when the incident occurred. From these, 45 containers were with IMO-classified hazardous cargo, 34 of which were stowed on the weather deck and the rest inside the vessel. The ship also had 2,200 tons of fuel in its bunkers.
Grande America suffered a fire on March 10 when voyaging from Hamburg to Casablanca. The fire caused the vessel to sink on March 12, in the Bay of Biscay.
