WATCH: ROV Surveys Sunken ‘Oleg Naydenov’

The following footage shows an ROV inspection at a depth of 2,700 meters, offshore Gran Canaria, where Oleg Naydenov sank with nearly 1,500 tonnes of fuel.

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was deployed on Tuesday, April 22 to inspect the wreck located approximately 24 kilometres off the southern coast of Gran Canaria island.

The Russian trawler sank on April 14 after Spanish port authorities decided to tow the ship out to sea following the fire incident onboard the vessel, on April 11, when it was moored at Las Palmas port on Gran Canaria.

The ship’s crew of 72 were rescued and the Spanish authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

According to reports, the fishing trawler is leaking fuel into the ocean and the bad weather is hampering the oil spill intervention.

So far, approximately 120 kilos of hydrocarbon residues have been collected on the beaches of Veneguera, Tasarte and Taurito.

Further reports tell that ROV pilots and technicians have estimated leakage flow between 5 and 10 liters per hour.

The environmental organisations are stressing the importance of containing and plunging the leak from one of the most important fisheries areas in the Canary Islands.

According to Oceana, the location of the wreck is home to important upwellings of nutrients originating from the Saharan coast and reaching the Canary Islands in the form of filaments.

Oceana says that these uprisings of nutrients or upwellings stimulate biological abundance and have formed an area of high productivity in which eggs and larvae of pelagic and seabed-related species are often found as well as high concentrations of plankton.