Ray Smuts
AS CAPETONIANS heaved a collective sigh of relief at the sight of white sand and blue waters once again, the sunken ore carrier Treasure appears to have yielded the last oil from her mangled hull.
It's all over - including the shouting - and all that is left to remind one of Cape Town's worst oil pollution
catastrophes is the ongoing cleansing operation of more than 15 000 oil-saturated penguins.
Divers only pumped about 180 tons of fuel from Treasure which indicates that most of the vessel's 1 300 ton load of fuel must have escaped when she sank in
50 meters of water off Melkbosstrand on June 23.
The wreck however remains a navigation hazard to other vessels and Treasure's owners have called for
tenders from local and international salvage companies for the removal of the sunken ship which has to be
completed before January 1. Buoys have been attached to either end of the wreck.
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