Boats aground at Cofresi
I have been involved in the salvage operations of the tug and barge which ran aground at Cofresi since the occurrence of this casualty. Our response team was on its way to the site even before the tug's insurers were notified and since then we have been working in coordination with them and the authorities to minimise the risks of pollution and contamination. I can't go into many details at this stage however I can say that our response team was on site very shortly after the occurrence, and we had deployed an emergency crew on board the tug plus our anti pollution equipment, materials and manpower were in place at Cofresi Beach the following day.
Those of you who have been watching the activities on the beach will have seen that an anti oil spill boom was positioned around the tug to contain any leakage of fuel, oils, oily water and other possible contaminants. Representatives of international salvage companies were on site the following (Friday) morning and reinforced on Saturday.
Arrangements were made with the authorities (Marina de Guerra), and contingency plans were made with delicate local facilities particularly Ocean World and others.
The emergency crew we placed on board the tug secured all loose stores, garbage and potential contaminants, pumped water from the engine room into other compartments on the tug whilst collecting and securing oily water during that operation. Fuel - marine diesel oil, was transferred from tanks under the water line of the tug to secure tanks above the water line to avoid risk of the lower tanks breaching.
The next week will see the commencement of operations to refloat the tug and remove her from the beach under tow to a repair facility. Of course, all precautions will be taken to protect the delicate environment during this process.
The barge contains inert building materials only, it has no means of propulsion and therefore does not present any contamination risks.
Weather permitting the tug and barge will be off the beach without too much delay and in the meantime you can rest assured that the tug's insurers are taking a very responsible position with regard to the whole issue and have been doing so with our assistance and coordination since early last Thursday afternoon.
I'll be happy to discuss this further either on the forum or in PM's with any of you who would like to do so.
I'll be posting further updates as we move forward.
Bryan
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