{"id":111781,"date":"2025-06-26T13:35:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T12:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/?p=111781"},"modified":"2025-06-26T14:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T13:07:10","slug":"le-trafic-maritime-touche-le-fond-n2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/le-trafic-maritime-touche-le-fond-n2\/","title":{"rendered":"Maritime traffic hits rock bottom \u2013n\u00b02"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here we are for the\u00a0Morning Midas<\/i>, 5,000 metres below sea level, 830 km from Adak Island, one of the 302 Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The\u00a0Morning Midas<\/i>, which had been on fire since June 3, was operated by the London-based company Zodiac Maritime. The wreck contains 3,048 vehicles, including 70 electric and 681 hybrid, 350 tonnes of diesel and 1,530 tonnes of fuel oil, plus fuel for combustion engine and hybrid cars. In addition to the hydrocarbons, the polluted underwater site will release a wide variety of toxic waste over the months and centuries, including lithium battery components, plastic accessories, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), tyres, technical fluids, etc. The seabed off the Aleutian Islands is dotted with cold-water coral reefs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Morning Midas<\/i>, October 19, 2019, Delta (British Columbia, Canada) \u00a9 Rick Voice<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Wan Hai 503<\/i>\u00a0is now being towed by the\u00a0Offshore Warrior<\/i>\u00a0and escorted by the\u00a0Boka Winger<\/i>,\u00a0Saroja Blessing<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Water Lily\u00a0<\/i>in charge of fire-fighting. The slow-moving convoy is heading for Hambantota in the south of Sri Lanka, some 1,000 km away. It is currently off the coast of the Alappuzha district in Kerala. Barrels of acid, 65 containers, the body of one of the missing crewmen and a lifeboat ran aground near Paravur, Alappuzha district. A preliminary investigation has been opened into the negligent handling of dangerous, explosive, toxic or flammable goods. As a reminder, the initial fire spread in containers stored below deck. It is thought to have started in a container of explosive materials. The\u00a0Wan Hai 503<\/i>\u00a0was carrying 12 containers of naphthalene, 4 containers of formaldehyde, 800 drums of herbicides, 132 drums of ethyl chloroformate (a reagent used in the pharmaceutical industry that decomposes into phosgene and dioxin on contact with fire), an unknown quantity of lithium batteries and containers of explosive materials, the nature of which has not been revealed. Could the disaster have been caused by lithium batteries or ammonium nitrate?\u00a0India is a major producer of technical ammonium nitrate used in quarries and mines.\u00a0 Two shipping agents from the port of Navi Mumbai are into custody. They are suspected of having provided the shipowner with misleading information to avoid shippers paying surcharges for hazardous materials and to divert the attention of the port authorities. Grey and black fumes are still coming out. The stability of the burning container ship cannot be guaranteed. The extinguishing water in the engine room needs to be pumped out as a matter of urgency. The\u00a0Wan Hai 503<\/i>\u00a0can be considered a ticking time bomb, and the main objective of the highest Indian authorities is to keep her more than 150 km away from mainland India and the Lakshadweep archipelago. Today, the\u00a0Wan Hai 503<\/i>\u00a0convoy is around a hundred kilometres from the wreck of the\u00a0MSC Elsa 3<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Wan Hai 503<\/i>, 2June 22, 2025 \u00a9 Directorate General of Shipping (India)<\/p>\n

The\u00a0MSC Elsa 3<\/i>\u00a0sank on Sunday, May 25, to a depth of 51 meters. Following her sinking, the arrivals of Industrial Plastic Pellets (IPP) have spread southwards and begun to affect the north of Sri Lanka in Jaffna, Mannar, Puttalam and Galle districts. The pumping of hydrocarbons into the tanks of the\u00a0MSC Elsa 3<\/i>\u00a0has been delayed by the bad weather conditions and above all by MSC’s breach of the contract it had signed with T&T Salvage. This controversy is also delaying the refloating of the wreck and the containers, which was considered a priority. The 24 crew members, including the Russian captain and Ukrainian, Georgian and Filipino crewmen, are confined to a hotel in Kochi. The hearings are delayed because they all tested positive for Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Plastic pellets from the\u00a0MSC Elsa 3<\/i>\u00a0on a Sri Lankan beach
\n\u00a9 Marine Environmental Protection Agency (Sri Lanka)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

See also:<\/strong>\u00a0Maritime traffic hits rock bottom\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Press release n\u00b01<\/a>, June 10, 2025<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only in French.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111781"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111790,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111781\/revisions\/111790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}