More damage and debris around grounded cargo ship in Lark Harbour

The clean up of oily debris around the shoreline of the MSC Baltic III has started but once again, Coast Guard officials and the salvage team can’t go ahead with work due to weather and sea conditions.

Over the last month, the weather has been hard on a grounded cargo ship in Lark Harbour. The clean up of oily debris around the shoreline of the MSC Baltic III has started but once again, Coast Guard officials and the salvage team can’t go ahead with work due to weather and sea conditions. Bruce English has been on the scene practically since the vessel lost power last February and ran aground in Cedar Cove. He says the damage to the hull is more noticeable including a noticeable change in the condition of the steel plate buckling on the starboard and port sides of the vessel. The stern portion of the vessel is also visibly lower in the water, down about 3 metres. Some small salvage equipment onboard was also damaged. English says most of that is in the water now and includes things like containers, generators, hoses, and even a water supply for the boiler.

Weather permitting, English says surveys will continue in the area and on nearby beaches. He says there are still some residuals in the tanks to be removed. So far, about 1700 metric tonnes of heavy fuel and marine gas have been removed, and English says there were 6 large tanks containing heavy fuel. He says 409 of 472 containers have been removed. English says of the 62 remaining containers, the majority of them contain food products  like lentils and peas, while others contain fabric and machine parts, and they are all contained in the hull.