MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Captain of ship wrecked on Gibraltar cliffs, free on bail

The remains of Fedra; only good for scrap iron

Gibraltar Police arrested the captain and two officers of the cargo ship Fedra, which ran aground on the sheer cliffs of Europa Point last Friday in extreme weather, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

The men, who have not been charged, were detained late on Sunday on suspicion of contravening port regulations. All three were released on police bail pending further enquiries. The police investigation is running in parallel to a separate investigation by the Gibraltar Maritime Authority, a routine step in cases such as this. The authority's investigation will examine all the technical aspects of the casualty without seeking to apportion blame. Its aim is to draw lessons from the incident. One area of focus for both investigations is the sequence of events that led to the ship hitting the rocks late Friday evening. The Fedra ran aground after suffering engine failure on Friday morning and dragging its anchor until it came perilously close to the shore. All through Friday afternoon, tugs labored to secure towlines to the crippled vessel but these repeatedly failed. Efforts to repair the ship's engine also proved futile. The investigations will seek to establish whether the crew on the Fedra followed proper procedures to communicate the vessel's circumstances to the Gibraltar port authorities in a timely manner. The 36,000-tonne ship was empty at the time of the casualty and was carrying only a small amount of bunkers for its own consumption, believed to be around 300 tons of fuel oil. At least 150 tons of that oil had spilt into the sea by Sunday and clean up operations were under way Monday. Some oil had washed ashore in the area of Rosia and Camp Bay and there were slicks in the Bay of Gibraltar. In Algeciras Spain's maritime rescue services, Salvamento Marítimo, said some fuel from the Fedra had washed up on Campo beaches and had drifted along the Strait of Gibraltar as far as Tarifa. Spanish fishermen returned to port claiming the slicks had prevented them from casting the lines and nets. Meanwhile, at Europa Point, marine surveyors climbed aboard the wreck again to assess the ship's condition and prepare a plan to remove it from Europa Point. The ship was ripped in two by powerful waves last Friday night. The bow section retains some buoyancy and may be towed away but the stern is resting on the seabed firmly wedged into the base of the cliff. The Gibraltar Chronicle also reported that the oil slick from the grounded Fedra is threatening the survival of one of Gibraltar's most important sea birds. The Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society has warned that the fuel oil has dealt a potentially-deadly blow to the Rock's colony of Shags. Several pairs of these vulnerable birds nest in Gibraltar in caves close to the wreck of the Fedra. On Monday GONHS campaigners spotted three Shags covered in oil, two adults and a juvenile. The juvenile was able to fly but the other two birds were heavily covered in oil and could only flutter their oil-drenched wings and swim. The GONHS members, helped by the Gibraltar Services Police, tried to catch the birds but their efforts proved futile. Facilities at the Alameda Wildlife Park and the Gibraltar Veterinary Clinic have been made ready to receive and treat the oiled birds, but even cleaning may not save their lives.