The maritime prefecture of Toulon announced Sunday that the device for the clearance of more than 12 ships, set up after the collision between a Tunisian ro-ro ship and a Cypriot container ship off Corsica, on 7 October pick up more than 1,000 m3 of a mixture of fuel and shit water and reduce the amount of fuel still in the water to less than 2%.
One week after the collision between two ships off Corsica, the clean-up work has reduced the volume of fuel still present in the water to less than 2%, which is less than the volume of a utility van. Sunday the maritime prefecture of Toulon.
"Several flights have confirmed that they no longer detect significant plaques of heavy fuels at sea," said AFP Commander Stanislas Gentien, spokesman for the Toulon Maritime Prefecture. "It's a real relief, the pumping device was very efficient and we were helped by nature, especially with evaporation . "
Since last Sunday, the device of more than 12 ships, including French and Italian navies, has collected more than 1000 m3 of a mixture of fuel and seawater escaped from the bunkers of damaged ships.
Change of mode of action
Of the 600 m3 that initially escaped from the belly of Virginia, "nearly 30% evaporated or were absorbed by the environment," details the prefecture in a statement.
The remaining 2% of fuel at sea disperse more and more finely in the form of small balls (the size of a golf ball to that of a handball), more than 30 km off the coast. ribs, according to the prefecture.
"This requires us to change our course of action, to give up pumping and to go to a trawling system , " Gentien said.
Ships engaged in the fight against pollution (French and Italian) will drag behind them pockets of felts to intercept the dumplings that the east wind could bring back to the coast, describes the prefecture.
This east wind should be strengthened on Monday precisely, according to Meteo-France, "which will limit the capacity of action of the smallest means on zone" , concludes the prefecture.
The Tunisian ship Ulysses, able to return to the sea, left the collision zone on Thursday and was to land Sunday in Tunisia, while the Cypriot container ship Virginia was still at anchor off Corsica Sunday night.