EXPLOITATION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION OF THE SEA

MOL Comfort disaster (follow up)
Information notice N°5

The MOL Competence, sister ship of the giant container ship that snapped in two in the Arabian Sea on June 17, is still in the vicinity of the port of Le Havre, France. She is looping around in circles.

At the same time, as a precautionary measure, the ship-owner Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has decided to strengthen the hull structure of the container ships of the same serie as soon as possible. The ships will be temporarily taken out of service and the rotations of the MOL container ships will obviously be rearranged

MOL Comfort disaster (follow up)

The fore part of MOL Comfort is approaching the Indian coast. If she continues on her trajectory, she could ground south of Mumbai by the end of the week. The fore part of the wreck travels a hundred kilometers a day. The aft part moves more slowly – about 75 km / day – but in the same direction. Towing operations have not begun.

On June 20, Robin des Bois asked all involved parties, Mitsui Osk Line (MOL), the IMO, the European Union, the countries bordering the Arabian Sea and France, to immobilize the sister-ships of the MOL Comfort to identify the causes of the currently unexplained accident.

MOL Comfort disaster

Subject : MOL Competence, shipwreck in the Bay of the Seine or in the Bay of Biscay?

This container ship is dangerous. Built at Nagasaki in 2008, she is one of the sister ships of the MOL Comfort that was fractured in two parts on June 17 in the Arabian Sea for unknown reasons.

Subject : MOL Comfort disaster – June 17th 2013

Addresses :
The General Secretary of the International Maritime Organization
Those responsible for the delegations of the International Maritime Organization in Iran, Yémen, the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Japan, Egypt, and the Bahamas (MOL Comfort flag)
The President of the Mitsui OSK Lines Company
The Commissioner of Transports of the European Union
The Commissioner of the Environment of the European Union
The Prime Minister of Japan
The Minister of Transportation of France

Mol Comfort disaster

A 316 meter long container ship broke in two after some hours of undulation in the Arabian Sea. The MOL Comfort was transporting the equivalent of 7,040 standard sized containers. The fate of the front and rear sections, and the number of containers that fell into the ocean, are uncertain. The Arabian Sea is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes; it connects the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea by the Suez Canal.

The MOL Comfort in the process of snapping in two on June 17, 2013
Photo IANS – Indo-Asian News Service

The new Japanese Nuclear Safety Authority (NRA – Nuclear Regulation Authority) is considered independent. It will publish this summer 2013 a collection of basic safety rules and prescribe generic or specific work to each nuclear site in the archipelago.

These preventive improvements will take several months to a few years. They will be carried out under the precondition that the political decision to relaunch nuclear power is affirmed and accepted by civil society.

The risks of a transoceanic shipping of spent fuel containing plutonium are unacceptable today, particularly because of political, military and nuclear tensions between North Korea, South Korea and Japan.

Lyubov Orlova – Press release # 5

According to the Rescue Coordination Center at Halifax in Canada, the Lyubov Orlova’s emergency beacon went off during the night of Saturday February 23rd. The most likely hypothesis would be that the Lyubov Orlova has sunk. The emergency beacon was either installed on the cruise ship or on one of the lifeboats onboard. It went off at 51°46.00 N and 35°41.00W i.e.: 1,700km (1,000 nm) from the European coastline which is to say closer than the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency reported on February 21st.

Lyubov Orlova – Press release # 4

If the latest news transmitted by the US maritime information services are confirmed, the Lyubov Orlova is closer to the American shores than the European ones.

Consequently, Robin des Bois asks Canada to initiate and finance all operational means in order to recapture the vessel and bring her back in a place of refuge. Thereafter, Canada, where the Lyubov Orlova had been seized in September 2010 and later on abandoned, should propose a new dismantling plan, different from the initial one. Scrapping the Lyubov Orlova in a unreliable ship-breaking yard in the Dominican Republic would be an additional scandal indeed.

Only in French.

Lyubov Orlova, Press release # 2

The decomissioned cruise ship Lyubov Orlova, now drifting in the Atlantic, is the responsibility of the Canadian authorities. Bearing the flag of the Cook Islands, the Lyubov Orlova was abandoned in the port of Saint John in Newfoundland in 2010, supposedly headed for demolition in the Dominican Republic after being sold by a Canadian broker to a Canadian resident of Iranian origins with interests in Saint-Domingue. Canada, the most recent country to harbour the cruise ship previously used for Arctic cruises, arranged for the Charlene Hunt, a tug boat constructed in 1962, to tow the ship on January 23. Shortly after the depart of the two ships, the tow cable broke, setting the Lyubov Orlova adrift. Due to security reasons, the Charlene Hunt was forced to return to the port of Saint-John. After the discovery of several deficiencies during the inspection of the vessel by the Canadian authorities, the Charlene Hunt must remain in port. Instead of inspecting the Charlene Hunt before its departure with the Lyubov Orlova in tow, as would have been in compliance with international maritime regulations, the Canadian authorities waited until after its return to port ; demonstrating a serious lack of foresight considering the requirements for a trans-oceanic towing.