The Tanio sank on March 7, 1980 off the northern coast of Finistère.

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AFP

  • Sunk in 1980 off the coast of North Finistère, the wreck of the Tanio continues to release oil.

  • A major patching operation was organized in September but fishing gear damaged these repairs.

  • The maritime prefecture preferred to ban fishing in the area until further notice.

They will not have resisted for long.

Placed four months ago on the old wreck of the Tanio, the plates supposed to prevent oil leaks have visibly been torn off.

According to the maritime prefecture, it is fishing gear that would have caused this damage to the hull of the tanker sunk in 1980 off the island of Batz, in Finistère.

To prevent this damage from happening again, the maritime prefect issued an order prohibiting the practice of fishing within a radius of 500 meters around the wreck of the tanker "in order to ensure its protection".

For several months, oil discharges have regularly polluted the coasts and oiled the wings of helpless birds.

In September, a delicate sealing operation was organized using an underwater robot.

Blanking plates had been installed to "plug the holes" in the wreckage.

Flying the Madagascan flag, the 192 m long tanker broke in two under the violence of a storm in 1980. Eight members of the crew were killed in the sinking and 10,000 tons of oil were spilled at sea. Aft part of the tanker, containing 7,500 tonnes of oil, had been towed to Le Havre, while the front part sank with still more than 10,000 tonnes on board.

It had taken fifteen months of submarine operations to recover more than 5,000 tons of oil and plug the breaches.

Some residual pockets

The wreckage, which lies at a depth of more than 80 meters, would therefore contain almost no material, but a few residual pockets continue to rot the wildlife.

After the repairs in September, new pollution had been observed.

An inspection mission carried out in January found that several plates had been torn off by fishing gear.

Hence the ban on fishing 500 meters around.

"Compliance with this decree is an essential prerequisite for the second stage of the process: carrying out a leak plugging intervention similar to that carried out in September 2020", specifies the maritime prefecture.

The question of the date of this intervention already arises.

But it will be necessary to wait for the availability of the national navy and especially favorable sea and current conditions.

Not easy in this windswept corner.

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