Salvage operation Commences

DUMAGUETE CITY ,Philippines – Salvage operations for the grounded cargo ship, M/V Ever Transport 3, off the coast of Barangay Calindagan in this city has already started.

Lieutenant Commander Agapito Bibat, head of the Coast Guard Station in Dumaguete, said that last January 24 the Steel Ray Salvaging Services had received a copy from the PCG national headquarters of its approved application for salvaging of the vessel.

Prior to the salvaging operations, workers on Thursday began retrieving cases of beer, beer bottles and energy drink bottles off the vessel, said Bibat, adding that a tugboat is expected to arrive on a still undetermined date to conduct the actual salvaging operations once all the cargo has been retrieved and unloaded.

Salvage operations would cover the refloating of the Ever Transport 3 and towing it to a shipyard in Naga City in Cebu, said Bibat.

Bibat said that, so far, the PCG has not found any signs of oil leakage from the Ever Transport 3 after it ran aground last December 17 during the onslaught of storm Sendong in Dumaguete. All measures were undertaken to ensure that any fuel left inside the ship will not find its way into the sea during salvage operations, he said.

The M/V Ever Transport 3, a cargo ship with a gross tonnage of 494.87, is owned by Zamboanga City-based Kheri Lines, Inc. It was docked at the Dumaguete Port en route to Mindanao when the PCG-Dumaguete issued a no-departure order on December 15 in anticipation of Sendong, which weather forecasters said was going to hit Dumaguete and Negros Oriental.

In the morning of December 17, however, the Ever Transport 3 had to leave the city port to seek shelter elsewhere after huge waves spawned by Sendong slammed it back and forth against the pier where it was docked.

As the cargo ship was moving away from the port, it ran aground off the coast of Canday-ong, a sub-village of Calindagan. Its 34 crew members and passengers were however rescued and brought to dry land immediately after it keeled on its port side.