The 170-metre long Baltic Tern lost the containers on Wednesday morning
Translated by Thomas Ansell
Another, much smaller, container ship spillage has occurred off the coast of the Wadden Islands with the 170-metre long Baltic Tern losing five containers about 27km of the north coast of Ameland. As reported by the Omrop Fryslân.
Three containers had ‘dry goods’ in them, one was empty, and the last was filled with the chemical acetone. The ship sails under the Cypriot flag, and was travelling between St Petersburg and Rotterdam. “The ship’s captain notified us of the spillage”, says Denice Blok of Kustwacht.
Whilst it is thought that only five containers fell overboard, the total is not yet confirmed. The Baltic Tern has a total load of 1,600 containers, and Kustwacht boats are on the way to the scene of the accident.
In the night of January 1, 2019, the MSC Zoe (a 395-metre long container ship) lost hundreds of containers overboard in rough weather in the Wadden Sea. Over the next week large numbers of objects washed up on the shores of the Wadden Islands, causing large amounts of ecological damage.
The ships were using the ‘southern route’ around the northern Dutch coast, which is thought by several organisations to be more risky for cargo loss. Tuesday’s rough weather also saw the 169-metre Escape have to call in the coastguard, whilst the enormous CSCL Jupiter (366 metres) also used the ‘southern route’, causing concern.
