Maritime Monster All Jobs Moored Here
On Tuesday, a landing craft sank off the coast of northern Mindanao, releasing fuel into the water and prompting a large-scale response.
At about 0522 hours on Tuesday morning, the master of the landing craft LCT 8 made a phone call to the Philippine Coast Guard and reported that the vessel had partially sunk just off the nickel-mining hub of Carrascal. All 17 crewmembers on board were unharmed, but the vessel had released a visible amount of petroleum. Courtesy PCG
The PCG dispatched a response team, and they found that the spill had spread along a stretch of about 200 yards of coastline. They estimated the total amount of oil on the water at about 200 gallons – enough to create a visible slick, but also small enough to contain.
AIS data provided by Pole Star Global shows that LCT 8 operates domestically on a regular route between Cebu City and Carrascal Bay, at the northeast end of Mindanao, with long gaps between received transmissions. Carrascal’s port is a logistics hub for an extensive complex of nickel mines located inland, extracting the raw material for China’s stainless steel and electric-battery industries.
FULL ARTICLE AVAILABLE HERE: maritime-executive.com
