Oil pollution at sea, probably due to the illegal degassing of a ship, which threatened the eastern coast of Corsica on Saturday, has moved offshore where navy ships are carrying out recovery operations.

“We are more reassured at this stage because the drift keeps the pollution away from the coast.

We have a very fragmented pollution which is now about ten kilometers offshore ”, indicated this Saturday evening the frigate captain Christine Ribbe, spokesperson for the maritime prefecture of the Mediterranean.

"But you have to be very careful, because the situation can change depending on the drift and the currents".

Hard blow for the start of the summer season

Beaches closed, fishing prohibited and deployment of significant coastal protection resources on land and at sea: from the night of Friday to Saturday this Mediterranean island was preparing with concern for the arrival of heavy hydrocarbons on the sandy beaches of the eastern coast.

"We hope to avoid pollution, but it will be complicated," lamented by telephone Francis Giudici, the mayor of Ghisonaccia, one of the threatened municipalities and whose beaches have been closed.

“There is a lot of anger.

It is not a small degassing ”, this illegal process at sea by which ships drain the gases from their hydrocarbon tanks, he added.

“We didn't need that at the start of the summer”.

Beaches prohibited

Spotted Friday during a military air exercise off Solenzara, in the east of the Mediterranean island, the oil pollution - black line in the blue waters of the Mediterranean - had reached very quickly up to 800 meters from the coast of this island popular with tourists on Saturday.

The presence of heavy hydrocarbons, the dissolution of which is difficult and the extent of the two oil slicks, prompted the authorities to launch the Polmar-Terre coastline protection plan on Saturday, which also includes action on the coasts.

It remains maintained.

The prefect of Haute-Corse François Ravier has prohibited access to the beaches for some forty kilometers, between the municipalities of Aleria to Ventiseri, while the island is experiencing summer weather.

Intervention at sea

The gendarmes asked the bathers to leave certain beaches and signs indicating "bathing prohibited - maritime pollution" were affixed.

Fishing is also prohibited in these same sectors.

Despite the remoteness of the slick, significant resources are still deployed, in particular two chartered support and assistance vessels (BSAA), “Pioneer” and “Jason” of the French Navy from the Toulon naval base (Var ).

With their personnel specialized in the fight against pollution, they recover part of the hydrocarbons, indicated the maritime prefecture.

An investigation was opened and entrusted to the maritime gendarmerie, said Dominique Laurens, the prosecutor of Marseille, responsible for cases of maritime pollution on the French Mediterranean coast.

One of the worst pollution in recent years

"Degasing hydrocarbons at sea is a pure act of ecological delinquency", denounced the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili, who went on site with the Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin.

“We arrived here determined to find those who degassed savagely.

I said earlier, they are thugs and they should be treated like thugs, ”said Ms. Girardin for her part.

At this stage, three ships whose presence in an enlarged area around the pollution require investigations to be carried out ", indicated Colonel Jean-Guillaume Remy, commander of the Mediterranean group.

This is one of the most significant outgassing pollution observed over the past three years in this Mediterranean area, according to the maritime gendarmerie.

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