A depollution operation began on Monday, February 28, in Reunion on a very touristic site on the Sainte-Rose coast, where fuel pellets were spotted, more than three weeks after the grounding of a Mauritian boat at 25 km away. Caught in the huge swell generated by Cyclone Batisrai, the plowman Tresta Star, which was traveling empty, ran aground on February 3 on the volcanic coast of Saint-Philippe, on the south coast of the island.
Depollution operations are carried out with the means of the French organization for the fight against accidental marine pollution, POLMAR Terre. This is the Champlain, Overseas support and assistance vessel of the French Navy, which is engaged in this operation.
The prefect of Reunion, Jacques Billant, activated these means after the discovery, at the beginning of last week, of pellets of fuel on the very frequented tourist site of Anse des Cascades, in Sainte-Rose. They were found after the dislocation of a residual oil slick spotted on February 18 from the gutted holds of the boat.
50 meters wide and 2.5 km long, the water table “disintegrated” since and “At this stage, there is no other flow escaping from the ship or any trace of iridescence nearby”, the prefecture said in a statement released on Friday. The operation was decided after three formal notices from the shipowner, owner of the boat and the absence of “concrete answers from the ship’s insurers”.
After a rescue operation carried out at night and in very difficult weather conditions, the 11 sailors on the tanker were brought back to shore on February 4. But the boat, constantly battered by the waves, is still embedded in the shore of the island in the Indian Ocean.