Salvage operations on sunken vessel in Antique kick off
Operations to salvage the sunken cargo ship off Culasi town in Antique started on Monday as divers continue the search for the vessel's missing toxic cargo.
A tugboat and a barge with a crane have been deployed off Culasi to salvage the MV Ocean Papa, according to Commodore William Melad, Coast Guard District Commander in Western Visayas.
Melad said in a telephone interview that the the owner of the cargo ship, Ocean Container Lines Inc., have contracted the C.V. Gaspar Salvage and Lighterage Company to conduct the salvage operations expected to last for three months.
The MV Ocean Papa sank due to strong winds and rough seas at noon of June 21 near Mararison Island around 5.6 km from the coast of Culasi while en route to Iloilo City from Manila.
The salvage plan involves the cutting of the ship into sections from the hull up to the bow and putting these into the barge.
But Melad said the focus of the operations is still on the recovery of container vans especially those with the toxic substance toluene di-isocyanate (TDI).
The Coast Guard has directed the salvage team to install oil spill booms around the vessel as a precautionary measure against an oil spill in case there is still oil trapped in the vessel.
Melad said only detached parts of the vessel will be salvage in the initial phase of the operation while the search for the toxic cargo continues. This includes the salvaging of the ship's bridge which was found 150 meters southwest of the vessel.
The salvage team will also recover 61 vans that have been swept ashore and a container van found by divers near the ship.
Divers have failed to located around 80 sealed drums containing 16 metric tons of DI, a main ingredient in the production of flexible polyurethane foam and is used in manufacturing synthetic leather, coated fabrics, paints and adhesives. The chemical can cause severe irritation of the skin and eyes and affects the respiratory, gastrointestinal and central nervous systems if inhaled or ingested..
The focus of the operations have been shifted to the area northwest of the vessel where one of the container vans was found, according to Melad.
Two teams of divers of the Coast Guard assisted by a tugboat and ship have been deployed in the area.
The Antique provincial board last week created a task force to monitor the search operations for the missing vans containing the the toxic cargo.