First phase of Operation Franken - summary

At the beginning of the month we informed you about the premiere of a video report on the dangers posed by the wreck of the Franken oil tanker and its cargo. The material appeared on the website of the Mare Foundation, which together with the Maritime Institute in Gdansk, decided to take action to prevent an ecological disaster.

“Franken” is a real bomb for the Gulf of Gdansk, whose clock is ticking faster and faster. The wreck, lying at a depth of about 70 metres, is in an increasingly bad condition and may collapse under its own weight. According to the estimations of the Maritime Institute, included in the report concerning the “Franken”, it would threaten with the leakage of 1200 tonnes of fuels.

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[blockquote style=”2″]”Franken had about 2,700 tons of fuel in her tanks, not counting the ship fuel she needed to sail (about 300 tons). These values are well documented. A survey of the wreck in April this year found that about 40% of the volume of the fuel tanks are sealed. Potentially they may still contain about 1,200 tonnes of fuel, or about one and a half million litres. ” – reads the foundation’s website[/blockquote].

The battle against time is now underway, and if no further action is taken, we will all lose this battle. If this were to happen, the ecosystem of the Bay of Gdańsk would simply be destroyed. It should be mentioned here that the contamination would affect Natura 2000 areas, nature reserves and colonies of protected grey seals, which are adjacent to the wrecked tanker.

To remedy the situation, a plan was devised to pump out the fuel contained in the tanks of the “Franken”. However, this is a complicated and expensive operation …

[blockquote style=”2″]”The cost of this measure can be assumed to be €6-8 million. However, it should be assumed that this is an optimistic variant and the actual price could be in the range of €10-20 million.” – reads the report[/blockquote].

Each of us can support the activities aimed at preventing the disaster. Over 19,000 internet users have already signed the appeal published on the Mare Foundation website: “Stop the Oil Spill”. If you have not joined this group yet, it is worth adding your contribution in the here.

There was also the first response to the activities carried out by the Mare Foundation and the Maritime Institute. The Marshall of Pomorskie Voivodeship, Mieczysław Struk, sent an official letter to Marek Gróbarczyk, the Minister of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation, in which he appealed for urgent action in this matter. We hope that this will be a good beginning, which will allow to end the efforts with a happy ending.

As DIVERS24 we sponsor the activities of the foundation, trying to inform about everything that happens in this matter. However, we are pleased to note that since the premiere of the first text on the activities of the foundation, the case is involved in other entities, including the Polish edition of National Geographic.

Source: fundacjamare.pl, im.gda.pl
Photo: Michał Czermiński, Michał Procajło

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