John Culatto
OIL is disappearing from Gibraltar waters after salvage teams started to patch up the leak from the shipwreck stranded off Catalan Bay.
Cleanup crews have worked hard to clear the oil from the coast too, with the main focus being the remote Seven Sisters beach during the weekend.
Divers discovered the source of the ship’s oil leak on Friday and made efforts to patch it up on Saturday.
“The oil that is escaping the vessel is likely to be unpumpable residues that remained in Tank 1 or the surrounding pipework,” the Gibraltar Government said in a statement.
The OS 35 has caused widespread environmental damage to the Rock’s coastal areas since sinking after a collision at the end of August.
Gibraltar government workers and environmentalist volunteers worked together to clean the Seven Sisters beach throughout the weekend.
“The remainder of Gibraltar’s coastline remains largely oil-free, and cleanup teams are effectively managing the limited amount of tar balls that are discovered during the daily shoreline assessments,” the government confirmed.
As the urgency of the situation subsided, the Port from Friday returned to normal operations, including refuelling.
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