NEWS

Ship firm ‘avoiding’ mop-up

The firm that owns the Sea Diamond, the cruise ship that sank off Santorini two months ago, does not appear to have any intention of pumping out dozens of tons of fuel from the sunken wreck, the lawyer representing the island’s municipal authorities has charged. Louis Hellenic Cruises allegedly promised to provide the Merchant Marine Ministry with a report by British experts, about how to remove the fuel, by tomorrow. But the firm’s official correspondence does not mention siphoning out the fuel, Sophia Kitsou charged. «In its answer to our legal suit, the firm refers to techniques that can be used to curb pollution, not to pump out the fuel,» she said. The Hellenic Center for Maritime Research, or ELKETHE, has told Santorini authorities that tests conducted on water samples in the area are not worrying. But this may change as fuel continues to leak from the wreck. An exercise to mop up fuel from the surface of the caldera is due to finish next week. Between 250 and 300 tons of some 430 tons of fuel from the ship’s tanks are believed to have been collected.

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