Costa de la Luz
Andalucía government takes action against New Flame owners and insurers
By m.p. - Feb 17, 2008 - 8:35 PM
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The Junta de Andalucía is on Monday expected to register formal complaints against the owners and insurers of the stricken New Flame cargo vessel, in a claim for 100,000 € compensation to cover the cost of the cleanup operation from spills from the vessel.
The ship has been lying off Gibraltar since hitting a tanker last August, and sunk further below the surface in the bad weather which hit the Strait of Gibraltar earlier this month. The Junta says the twenty four tons of oil and sand which were removed from La Concha beach in Algeciras after the vessel’s stern settled on the sea bed came from the New Flame, and parts of metal covered in oil arrived on the beach at the end of last week. Ecologists say dead jellyfish found on the beach were killed by pollution from the wreck.
The Junta’s councillor for presidency, Gaspar Zarrías, announced in Almería on Saturday that the regional government plans to report the UK to the European Commission for its ‘management’ of the shipwreck, which he said ‘contravenes the Community directive on the safety of maritime traffic.’
He confirmed that a team of 20 personnel remains on alert in the Bay of Algeciras in the case of any new spillage from the New Flame.
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