Abandoned ships in Turkish waters, or
“ghost ships” as they have been called by fishermen, will soon be dismantled.
There are 114 abandoned ships in
Turkey’s territorial areas in the Marmara, Aegean and Black Seas. Experts have
warned these ships pose a great environmental and public health risk, which
have led authorities to remove them from waters.
Following a recent amendment to the
Turkish Harbors Law, giving authority to the Turkish Transport, Maritime
Affairs and Communications Ministry to save these ships, it has initially been
determined that 25 ships are priority to be dismantled.
One of these ships is the “Tallas,” a
freighter that used to sail under the Cambodian flag. The ship was seized in
2015 due to his owner’s debts and waited in front of Istanbul’s Ahırkapı anchor
point for two years without crews. In February 2017, it washed ashore to the
Zeytinburnu coast due to severe storms. The ship went on sale in an auction on
May 10 to be dismantled and scrapped. The ship manufacturing company Marsis,
which won the tender bid, began dismantling the 65-meter-long and
nine-meter-wide ship on May 24.
Ali Tamer Sukes, a representative of the
firm, told daily Hürriyet on May 31 that the transportation of the ship to a
shipyard was “risky,” which was why they had begun dismantling the ship where
it had run ashore.
“Ships that have run ashore, such as the
‘Tallas’ or ones found submerged [in water] are damaged to the point that they
cannot be transported. Such ships can sink when attempting to transfer them to
the shipyard. This is why we are dismantling the ship on the shore,” said Sukes.
The firm representative said dismantling
the “Tallas” would be completed in 45 days. “We have taken environmental safety
measures for the dismantling of the ship. Later, we cleaned the inside of the
ship and separated the materials used in the ship. Now, we are dismantling it
to pieces in a way that will be accepted by recycling factories,” he said.
“MİNA-I” is another ship that will soon
share the same destiny as “Tallas.” The 78-meter-long ship, carrying a Turkish
flag, ran ashore at Maltepe port in Istanbul in November 2016. “MİNA-I” will be
sold in an action on June 4 through a tender, after which a process will be
launched to dismantle the ship.
Source: hurriyet daily news. 01 June 2018
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