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Speaker 1: Good evening.

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Speaker 2: There is still concern about the environmental impact from the

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Speaker 2: Manamanui ship sinking off the coast of Sarmor. The Navy

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Speaker 2: says the ship, which sunk after hitting a reef on Saturday,

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Speaker 2: had almost one thousand tons of diesel fuel on board.

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Speaker 2: Salmon locals say turtles have perished and oil can be

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Speaker 2: smelt on some Salmoran beaches, but officials say that's probably

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Speaker 2: from the original sinking, and an assessment today of the

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Speaker 2: wreck shows, at least from the outside, no sign that

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Speaker 2: the vessel is currently leaking. Wykattle University marine scientist Chris

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Speaker 2: Battershill is with the suce evening kelder. Chris got a

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Speaker 2: nine hundred and fifty tons of diesel fuel. So just

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Speaker 2: how significant is that risk.

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Speaker 1: It's a significant risk if it was lost very quickly

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Speaker 1: in a short period, and wouldn't you know, particularly if

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Speaker 1: there was a non shore wind at that time, so

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Speaker 1: that amount would be quite significant in coming ashore or

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Speaker 1: moving across a reef. Recent intelligence suggests that it's relatively

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Speaker 1: well contained on the ship, which is great news. So

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Speaker 1: if there's a way that it can be pumped out

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Speaker 1: as they did with the Arena, will be it in

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Speaker 1: slightly shallower depths, then there's every chance that that load

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Speaker 1: of diesel can be taken out of the environment.

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Speaker 2: So Manawanui is currently sitting at about thirty meters. That's

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Speaker 2: how deep it is right now, which is, like you say,

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Speaker 2: slightly deeper than the arena, but obviously not out of

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Speaker 2: the reach of commercial and experienced divers. How complicated would

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Speaker 2: it be to try and pump that quantity of fuel

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Speaker 2: off the wreck.

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Speaker 1: They did it for the arena in very very poor conditions.

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Speaker 1: The windows of opportunity were quite short because it's an

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Speaker 1: exposed location. There lots of open ocean of course coming in,

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Speaker 1: which is pretty much the same as being experienced in Zama,

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Speaker 1: where the Manawanui is understood that she was down at

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Speaker 1: around one hundred and fifty meters, however, which is quite

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Speaker 1: significantly deeper. If it's thirty meters, that's great news. That

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Speaker 1: is well within the reach of most salvage operations. Albeit

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Speaker 1: they'll need to have a decompression chamber in all of

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Speaker 1: the other ordnance on board for the salvage divers. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but if it's a bit deeper, it gets trickier.

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Speaker 2: No, I believe it is thirty I believe that the

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Speaker 2: Navy commodore has explained tonight that it's at about thirty

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Speaker 2: meters underwater off a reef, so we can go to

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Speaker 2: the Navy for confirmation. But obviously the shallower it is,

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Speaker 2: the better it is in terms of access for divers.

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Speaker 2: Obviously other conditions can affect things, are the currents, the

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Speaker 2: weather conditions, all those kinds of things. But the shallower

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Speaker 2: the better. They're looking to pump that fuel loft. How

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Speaker 2: long do they have how quickly do they need to

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Speaker 2: move if they want to get this fuel offt before

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Speaker 2: the vessel itself is corroded and the tanks holding the

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Speaker 2: fuel are more likely to be breached.

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Speaker 1: The coroasion is shoe is probably not a significant one.

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Speaker 1: That vessel will lasts for a very long time underwater.

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Speaker 1: Even the main problem is at thirty meters it's still

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Speaker 1: probably within the reach of deep, deeper oceanic swells, and

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Speaker 1: as we experience with the Rena once again using that

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Speaker 1: as an example, it was those storm events, the cyclonic

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Speaker 1: events coming in with deep ocean swells that moved the

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Speaker 1: ship around and tended to beat it up quite severely

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Speaker 1: to the extent that it's we got to sway further

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Speaker 1: and further down the reef. When that's happening, yes, then

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Speaker 1: there's going to be issues structurally, and that's when there

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Speaker 1: could be other leaks opened up.

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Speaker 2: So Nicola Willis told us last night, Manha Manui effectively

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Speaker 2: had third party insurance or the naval ship equivalent of

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Speaker 2: third party insurance. So the ship's not insured, but some

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Speaker 2: parts of the salvage and the response are insured. Although

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Speaker 2: we don't know for how much at the stage, but

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Speaker 2: give us some here. How much is an event like

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Speaker 2: this and trying to pump off the fuel the whole

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Speaker 2: response in salvage likely to cost.

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Speaker 1: Oh to be certainly around fifty to one hundred million,

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Speaker 1: I would think for oceanic work like that. I can't

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Speaker 1: quite recall what the arena cost in the end, but

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Speaker 1: they were also pulling under that vessel out of the water.

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Speaker 1: But I know it was the second most expensive ship

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Speaker 1: salvage operation in the world, next to the cost of Concordia.

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Speaker 1: It was many hundreds of millions, yeah, of dollars.

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Speaker 2: I mean, obviously some differences right with the arena of

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Speaker 2: the Arena was a larger container ship, and obviously that

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Speaker 2: the environmental differences as well. But that being said, it's

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Speaker 2: going to be an extremely expensive operation. I mean if

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Speaker 2: it was anything like that. So it's basically the cost

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Speaker 2: of the ship in the first place, isn't it. Hey,

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Speaker 2: thank you very much, Chris, appreciate your time. That is

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Speaker 2: why Cuttle University marine scientist Chris Battershill. Right now, it

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Speaker 2: is twelve minutes past five more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

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