Dutch salvage company to remove oil from sunken cruise ship
Dutch maritime salvage company SMIT will be removing the nearly 2,400 tons of fuel from the wrecked Costa Concordia in the coming weeks.
The firm said it will take two to four weeks to safely remove the oil from the grounded cruise ship, but the search operation for the missing passengers remains the first priority. Smit added that a survey of the ship must be completed before the extraction begins.
The luxury cruise liner ran aground and capsized near the island of Giglio, Italy. The ship had just left the port of Civitavecchia, north of Rome, for a week-long voyage and was
By Rvongher (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons
carrying full fuel tanks.
Italy’s environment minister Corrado Clini has declared the area around the island of Giglio a national disaster and the risk of an environmental disaster is high.
Giglio is one of seven islands that form the Tuscan Archipelago, a chain of islands between the Ligurian Sea and Tyrrhenian Sea. The chain is protected as part of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park.
You might also be interested in: Carnival reports it self-insures for loss of use of sunken Costa Concordia vessel
