Tobago Correspondent
A hydrographic survey will be conducted on the wreckage site off the Cove, Tobago, today, some 21 days after a vessel, spewing bunker fuel, ran aground at the site near the shoreline.
This survey will measure the water depth and identify navigational hazards on the seafloor to determine the best way to remove the overturned Gulfstream barge. Tobago Emergency Management Agency director Allan Stewart said yesterday that the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries had sourced further specialists help to start this process.
Stewart said, “They will pursue to bring specialised equipment into the operations that will allow for the collection of the fuel, hydrocarbon, and also involved in that is not what’s in the vessel, but also what is out at sea.”
When the survey is completed, the team will project how and when the vessel can be removed.
“The survey will provide the team with certain intelligence and information such as the compartments of the ship, as well as the quantities, utilising certain tools. After that assessment, they would be in a better position to make some projections.”
As a result, Stewart could not give timelines of how long it would take to fully plug the leak and how long containment of the oil out at sea will continue.
It wasn’t until last Friday that the Institute of Marine Affairs confirmed that the substance spewing from the barge was a type of bunker fuel.
Last Friday, TEMA told Guardian Media that T&T Salvage LLC had proposed a plan to drain the oil to allow specialists to safely recover the vessel from the sea.
Meanwhile, officials are still working to positively identify the owners of the vessel.
On February 4, the crashed vessel was identified just after 7.20 am spewing oil that quickly affected parts of Scarborough, Lambeau and the Cove.
Search and rescue operations were launched immediately, but no survivors were found.
While the affected area in Scarborough was restored within days, clean-up operations in Lambeau seem to be far from finished.
