Captain of Gibraltar oil spill vessel arrested for ignoring instructions
“From the beginning there has been coordination with Spain,” explained Picardo
The captain of the bulk carrier OS 35 which had been leaking fuel off Gibraltar since Thursday has been arrested, police sources confirmed on Friday.
The Tuvalu-flagged vessel carrying steel bars left Algeciras Bay for Vlissingen in the Netherlands on Monday and collided with the Marshall Islands-flagged Adam LNG. The collision occurred as OS 35 was moving out of Gibraltar Bay. No one was injured in the accident. The 24 members of OS 35 were quickly evacuated.
“He didn’t stop, he didn’t follow instructions and said he had no damage,” Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo explained in an interview. He stressed the captain had “many questions” to answer after ignoring authorities in Gibraltar following the spill.
After the initial collision OS 35 attempted to continue sailing but the captain admitted he ‘couldn’t continue’ as the boat had ‘significant’ water leaks once in the Bay of Gibraltar.
The captain is said to have cooperated on Friday “with detectives from the Crime and Protective Services Division of the Royal Gibraltar Police”.
Water entered the ship, which broke down on Thursday evening and began leaking 500 tonnes of its own fuel, which was not the ship’s cargo but rather for its engines.
A relief deployment began pumping out fuel which was controlled by a floating barrier called a “boom” placed around OS 35 following the discovery of the leak. Gibraltar authorities have confirmed that 4,000 liters of oil and water have already been recovered from the dam.
Picardo confirmed that “from the start there was coordination with Spain” to clean up the waters off Gibraltar and Spain. Gibraltar officials also announced that the leak was “fully under control” and that the priority was to “catch and collect the free-floating oil that escaped from the dam, as well as remove the oil that remained. contained within the dam”.
OS 35 has been beached in the Bay of Gibraltar since the two ships collided on Monday evening.
“Gibraltar Port Authority has confirmed a leak of heavy fuel oil, a small quantity of which escaped from the perimeter of the dam,” the government said in a statement.
