Minister of Transport Stephen Cadiz talked tough last week as he outlined the government's plans to deal with an estimated 51 derelict and abandoned boats in T&T waters.The Maritime Services Division (MSD) will meet with the owner of 13 of these vessels anchored off the coast at Chaguaramas to agree on which can be scrapped and which will be towed to another jurisdiction.
Nguyen Hai Chau, owner of Trinidad Vina Ltd, brought the derelict ships to mooring at the Five Islands two years ago and paid to have them laid up there. Since then, however, various substances have been reported to be leaking out of the vessels and community concern about potential environmental hazards grew.Commodore Garnet Best of the MSD has been charged with reviewing the inventory of 51 ships that have been identified as either abandoned or monitored ships that haven't moved under their own power for years now.
Pressure to deal with these ships has grown since it became clear that not only would they not be going anywhere, but their next trip is likely to be to the ocean floor, where salvage operations become far more expensive and the possibility of chemical pollution, already evident near some of the floating wrecks, will become even more deadly.Thirty-two of these ships are moored off Port-of-Spain and Sea Lots, seven in Chaguaramas and seven at Claxton Bay, with three in San Fernando and one each in Cedros and Tobago.
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