Fishers warned to steer clear of 'dangerous' damaged Russian tanker
Department of Fisheries, AFM provide coordinates of vessel to help fishers stay away
The authorities are warning fishers to steer clear of the Russian tanker carrying around 700 metric tons of fuel and tons of LNG that suffered a suspected missile attack between Malta and Libya.
Earlier this month, Times of Malta reported that Arctic Metagaz, a gas tanker believed to be part of Russia's shadow fleet exploded after it was attacked by enemy fire.
Transport Malta’s Ports and Yachting Directorate eventually warned mariners that the drifting vessel was “not under command” and was operating without an NUC signal. This is a visual signal typically used to indicate that a vessel is unable to manoeuvre.
It urged mariners to keep five nautical miles away from the vessel at all times.
Since then, Malta has activated an emergency contingency plan.
On Saturday, the vessel was drifting around 50 nautical miles southwest of Malta, raising fears of environmental and maritime safety risks.
The authorities fear that the wind direction could push the 277-metre-long, 43-metre-wide just off the west coast of Gozo.
By Sunday night, it was still outside of Maltese waters.
However, the Department of Fisheries warned that the vessel could be dangerous for Maltese fishers in the area.
With the help of the AFM, it provided the coordinates of the vessel at 8pm on Sunday (Latitude 35°16′N, Longitude 13°38′E) to help fishers locate it and stay away.
University of Malta rector and chemist Alfred Vella has previously warned about environmental damage caused by the vessel.
“Any gas that didn’t burn off as CO2 will have evaporated as methane. LNG rarely causes massive explosions," he said. "However, the vessel’s own fuel and bilge water could cause harm if it were to leak out."