For the second week in a row, a cargo vessel has run aground, this time at Acar Burnu at the northern end of Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait into the Black Sea.
The bulk carrier, MKK1, was carrying 13 000 tonnes of peas at the time its bow got lodged on the Asian side of the Strait’s coastline.
It has since been dislodged and has proceeded on its voyage from Ukraine’s Port of Pivdennyi to Turkey’s Port of Mersin on the Mediterranean.
The Palau-flagged vessel is the second special concession food carrier that has run aground under the UN’s Black Sea Grain Initiative (BCGI) in as many weeks.
Last Monday another bulk carrier, the Glory, loaded with grain from Ukraine and bound for China, got stuck in the northern channel of the Suez.
The incident sent jitters through the maritime industry as another vessel incident in 2021 completely blocked the important Egyptian waterway for at least six days, and last year the ultra-large container vessel, the Ever Given, ran aground in the southern channel.
Yesterday’s incident in the Bosphorus brings to five the number of vessels that have so far this year caused disruption at sea.
In addition to the two BCGI carriers running aground, an MSC box ship got stuck on a breakwater at the Port of Gioia Tauro in Italy; an empty tanker broke in two when a hull explosion ripped its amidships area apart off China’s coast in the Yellow Sea, and a general cargo vessel was gutted during a blaze while it was anchored off the Port of Gresik in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Five vessel incidents in two weeks mean 2023 is on course to record the worst start to a new year for the maritime industry this century.
