Americas News
Bunker Tanker Successfully Refloated After Grounding on Canadian East Coast
A bunker vessel that grounded off Canada's East Coast was successfully refloated Sunday, local media reports.
As Ship & Bunker previously reported, the Panama-flagged Arca 1 grounded off Little Pond, Nova Scotia on January 8.
Last week, the Canadian Coast Guard said the first attempt at towing the vessel failed after frozen pumps prevented the salvage contractor from removing enough ballast water before tides became too low to refloat the vessel.
Crews again planned to attempt to free the vessel Saturday night, but high winds and seas are reported to have impeded those efforts.
Finally, at around 10 a.m. on Sunday, the bunker tanker was successfully refloated and towed to Sydney Harbour, where it is noted to have been returned to the vessel owner, Petroil Marine SA (Petroil Marine).
"The owner has been very cooperative and very available and very responsive up until this point," said Keith Laidlaw, a senior response officer with the Coast Guard's environmental branch.
"Coast Guard is looking at demobilising our incident command post, probably tomorrow, and, as in all these incidents ... there will be a report."
