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The scandalous tanker, which capsized on its side, tried several times without success to put on the keel.
The Delfi tanker, which sank near Odessa beach last year, was taken to the Chornomorsk port oil port. During this time, he caused serious environmental damage to the Black Sea and was arrested. Correspondent.net says the details.
Judgment ahead
The Delfi tanker under the Moldovan flag crashed on the night of November 22 in Odessa Bay. As the Ukrainian seaports administration explained, it was initially in neutral waters and did not request to enter the Odessa or South seaports.
But then a signal was given that the ship was in danger, it ran out of fuel, with an engine not working. The shipowner accepted the tanker’s trailer for mooring at a free mooring in the port of Ochakov.
That same night, the tanker, which fell on its side, managed to anchor less than two kilometers from the coast in the Odessa Dolphin beach area. During the special operation, rescuers evacuated three crew members from the capsized tanker.
The next day it became known that the ship was dumping petroleum products into the sea: the level of contamination of the water was 160 times higher than the allowed norm. The second spill occurred in mid-June. Next is September 4th.
The head of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine, Andriy Malevany, said that the leak of harmful substances from the sunken tanker caused damages worth 16.3 thousand dollars. This money will be collected from the owner of the boat.
“Why is the amount of losses so low? Because today the losses from the discharge of all pollutants into water bodies are calculated using the same method. Losses from the same amount of oil and oil products of palm that enter the body of water are the same, “said Malevany.
He also added that the SEI is developing a draft of legislative changes so that the amount of losses from infractions such as the spillage of petroleum products at sea is actually a significant amount.
Vladislav Balinsky, head of the public organization Green Leaf, said that birds and coastal aquatic organisms, as well as biocinosis, are the first to suffer from the oil spill.
“The oil film kills a large number of microorganisms, which does not allow air to pass through,” he told DW.
Air pollution also occurs as petroleum products evaporate due to the summer heat.
Furthermore, the State Shipping Service revealed that the ship violated Ukrainian and international law. Thus, according to the documents, the sunken ship belongs to the British company MISTER DRAKE PC and was sailing under the flag of Moldova. But the country’s maritime administration said it removed Delfi from the registry in 2018.
And that’s not all. According to the SBU, the tanker may be involved in the smuggling of petroleum products.
The owner was supposed to get the boat off shore by March 31, but did not. In April, the Odessa authorities promised to pick up the tanker by June 25. However, these promises were not kept either.
In early July, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky examined the crash site. He ordered the withdrawal of the tanker before July 20. However, all attempts to lift the tanker have failed. Only on the third attempt was the boat put on the keel.
One of the failed attempts to lift the boat:
The situation was extremely recognized for the damage to the ecology of the sea. Therefore, after the failures of private companies and the refusal of the owner of property rights, the state itself, namely the Administration of Ukraine’s seaports, decided to cope with the situation. At the end of July, a tender for 25 million UAH was announced.
As a result, the operation to lift the tanker from the shallows and tow it to Chornomorsk was carried out by specialists from the Cranship company on the orders of the stevedore of the Odessa port of Brooklyn-Kiev. After lunch on September 10, the tugs Topaz and Diamant towed Delfi to Pier 24.
In August, the Odessa Primorsky District Court sentenced the captain of the oil tanker Delfi to one year of probation.
“The captain, in violation of the navigation safety rules, as well as in violation of the requirements of the international minimum crew certificate, with a crew of three (instead of five) was left without cargo anchored,” the court said in a press release.
These decisions, the court notes, ultimately led the ship into trouble. At the same time, the captain ignored warnings about worsening weather conditions and did not take the necessary measures to prevent the Delfi from drifting off course.
The tanker itself was detained on September 1. Therefore, the court of the Odessa region partially satisfied the claim of the Administration of the Seaports of Ukraine against the owner of the tanker.
The document also indicates that the debtor is the British company MISTER DRAKE PC, and its representative is a resident of the Nikolaev Yuri Golikov region.
On September 23, the USPA’s lawsuit to recover UAH 2,355,698 from the owner will be considered.
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