Crew negligence caused Swedish ferry grounding

A criminal investigation has now been launched, a spokesman said, and two members of crew had been fined, although he did not know if they had been dismissed.

The TT-Line ferry Marco Polo ran aground just south of Karlshamn, in Pukavik Bay, at around 7am on October 22.

None of the 75 people on board, around half of whom were crew, was hurt, but oil and diesel were spilled after fuel tanks were damaged in the incident.

By Saturday, 25m³ of oil, which had already contaminated some of the beaches, had been collected.

A week later and salvage teams are still trying to clean up the oil, which has sunk because the temperature of the water cooled it down and made it heavier, said the spokesman.

“That’s been a big challenge,” he said. “We use an oil recovery system using booms to gather it on the surface when the weather permits, which has been changing – some days good, some bad.

“The problem is when the oil spills into the water it changes temperature and when it cools down it sinks. We have been trying equipment from the European Maritime Safety Agency to trawl for the oil beneath the surface of the water.”

Smit Salvage was called in to help with the operation, and the Marco Polo is currently being held afloat by two tugs while divers attempt to ascertain the extent of the damage to her hull, the spokesman said.

“Environmental rescue is a priority: to remove as much oil as possible from the water in order to save the beaches as much as possible,” said Erik Svensson, coordinating the work on site.“Oil has reached land, but a large amount remains at sea. We are working together with a number of stakeholders to be able to extract as much oil as possible.” 

“Investigative measures have been taken since Sunday: interrogations on board, collection of information and technical documentation,” says the Coast Guard. “A check on board showed that all of them were sober.”