A depollution operation began on Monday in Reunion on a very touristic site on the coast of Sainte-Rose, where pellets of fuel oil were spotted, more than three weeks after the grounding of a Mauritian boat 25 km away. .

Caught in the huge swell generated by Cyclone Batisrai, the pimp Tresta Star – which was traveling empty – ran aground on February 3 on the volcanic coast of Saint-Philippe, on the south coast of the island.

Depollution operations are carried out with the means of the French organization for the fight against accidental marine pollution, POLMAR Terre.

It is "Le Champlain", the French Navy's overseas support and assistance vessel, which is involved in this operation.

"A disaster that will be very expensive"

The prefect of Reunion, Jacques Billant, activated these means after the discovery, at the beginning of last week, of fuel pellets on the very popular tourist site of Anse des Cascades in Sainte-Rose.

They were found after the dislocation of a residual oil slick spotted on February 18 from the gutted holds of the boat.

50 meters wide and 2.5 km long, the slick "has broken up" since then and "at this stage there is no other flow escaping from the ship or trace of iridescence nearby" , said the prefecture in a press release published on Friday.

The operation was decided after three formal notices from the shipowner, owner of the boat and the absence of "concrete answers from the ship's insurers".

Deputy Jean-Hugues Ratenon (LFI) who flew over the grounding site on Monday morning "denounced" in a press release "the mismanagement (by the State) of this disaster which will be very expensive".

After a rescue operation carried out at night and in very difficult weather conditions, the tanker's eleven sailors were brought back to shore on February 4.

But the boat, constantly beaten by the waves, is still embedded in the shore of the island in the Indian Ocean.

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