Casualty file

We begin this week’s round-up of casualty news with a stark warning from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) over a hijacked Greek VLCC.

Secretary general Efthimios Mitropoulos raised the spectre of an “environmental catastrophe” should the Maran Centaurus ground off Somalia amidst reports of worsening weather and unsafe anchorage conditions.

(View the weekly WebTV report in the media player at right.)

It has been a quiet two weeks off the East African coast but a Greek bulker and Ukrainian crew were freed after over seven months in captivity. The Ariana was released after a ransom reported to be as high as $2.8m was paid last week.

Another Greek bulker was hit by three grenades in a sustained attack far out into the Indian Ocean last week. The Coral Globe sustained some damage but managed to evade capture by pirates.

Eight seafarers were rescued but four others remain missing after their Togo-flagged ship sank off Israel and Turkey’s Tuzla shipyard complex witnessed yet another death.

Polembros was barred from US ports and territorial waters for three years following a pollution case involving its bulker Theotokos while another report in the US blamed the officers of a ship for a collision with a dredger.

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