Contents page 1 — A wreck, the heavy oil is always a disaster page 2 — “In any case, a disaster” On a page
Black lumps on surf beaches, glued birds and dying oysters: On the West French coast, expect the people of an oil Spill. 330 kilometers from the mainland is damaged a few days ago the container ship Grande America. Approximately 2,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil are; waves and currents in the Atlantic will determine how and when the Dirt reaches the coast. Affected, the regions that attract in the summer most of the tourists will be taken to be: the beaches North of Biarritz, where surfers ride a wave, the bird Islands in front of Arcachon, the city with the highest dune in Europe, and the Bay to the South of Bordeaux, in the oysters.
The spectacular wreck shows that the ship traffic has become in Europe and worldwide for the sea, a total of threat. More than 80 percent of all Goods are now transported over the sea, mainly because it is so cheap. Everything is getting bigger and bigger, as Figures of the French Maritime economy Institute ISEMAR. Today, an average cargo ship is 350 meters long and it is transported to 16,000 containers – four times as many as 20 years ago. This large cargo is accompanied by relatively few people, only 16 of the crew members travel, on average, the majority of them come from the country of export China. Because the labor costs there are low, the long way from China to Germany transported the TV or vacuum cleaner in the end, only about one percent of the price.
The price pressure brings with it two dangers. First of all, small Crews have to be increasingly larger and often combustible or explosive cargoes. Secondly, most of the tankers with heavy fuel oil, which is cheap, but especially a lot of harmful exhaust gases produced.
Container with unclear content
the Grande America went with the heavy oil. The 2,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from the Tank are also the ones who are now washed up on the shores. On 8. In March, the ship was run at 3 in the morning from the port of Hamburg. On the evening of the 10. In March a fire broke out. The deletion of the house-high flames not only took a whole day, you might cause the sinking of the boat. Probably the many cubic meters of fire water is not only a blow to the side and let the boat finally on the of 4,600-Meter-deep bottom of the Atlantic to sink. The 27 men and women on Board were rescued, but the ship and its cargo are now in the sea.
According to the Italian Grimaldi Group, which owns the ship, the charge of the 2,100 new and used vehicles. In addition, nearly 400 containers on Board, 45 of them with hazardous substances. The Details you mentioned.
A scrap ship?
This lack of information is typical of the rapidly growing industry. Neither the port of Hamburg, the company has loaded the Tanker, knows what Goods were handled in front of your eyes. Meanwhile, the French Prefecture, has announced that, under the dangerous substances salt and sulphur were substances. The Grimaldi Group had, however, ruled out that the ship corrosive substances, one of which is sulfur, the led on Board.
there is An obvious contradiction, the French NGO Robin Hood asks for clarification: “We demand from the French authorities a full list of materials,” writes the environmental organization. The organization had earlier announced to sue the Grimaldi Group due to “pollution of the sea and of the abandonment of waste”,. “The Grande America was a scrap ship, which transported scrap”, they write.
Actually on the side of Equasis, which is a page that collects information about the safety of shipping and provides, to understand that, at the Grande America over the past few years, numerous deficiencies have been identified. Especially defective fire protection is mentioned in the European Union based database.
