Over half the heavy fuel onboard the stranded ship in Lark Harbour has been safely removed

The Coast Guard's Bruce English says they found about a dozen tar balls on the beech, which did not come from the stranded ship.

The Canadian Coast Guard is reporting that just over half of the heavy fuel onboard the stranded MSC Baltic III has been safely removed by the salvage team T and T.  The ship ran aground in an area known as Cedar Cove after losing power on February 15th. Early estimations concluded there was 1600 metric tons onboard. The Coastguard’s Bruce English says due to weather, winds and sea state, they can only work on this about 50 percent of the time. He says the fuel has to be heated then pumped onto other MSC ships and there are other hydrocarbons onboard.   

The vessel sustained serious structural damage to the hull making it impossible to tow away safely and there is still no leakage. Since April 11th, , shoreline surveys have documented a small number of tar balls of various sizes and other minor observations of oil. This is to be expected during an incident of this nature. The hull of the MSC Baltic III is severely damaged, the engine room and two fuel tanks are breached, and dive surveys show a black tarry substance trapped under the vessel which is likely residual oil. The goal is to mitigate pollution and minimize environmental hazards.

English says T and T salvage has had a vessel on site as of late last week to remove containers and bring them to Corner Brook. English says that vessel can take 50-40 foot containers or 100- 20 foot containers, and is 100 metres long.  He says they will also be setting up a gangway  so people can walk onboard the Baltic.