The Swedish Coast Guard worked Monday to contain the trail of diesel that leaked from a ferry that ran aground off Sweden’s southern coast on Sunday.
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“We know that the oil slick currently extends more than five kilometers out to sea,” Erik Svensson, the cleanup coordinator, said in a statement.
“Protecting the environment is a priority: this involves removing as much diesel as possible from the water in order to protect the beaches as much as possible,” he added.
In addition to the cleanup work, the Coast Guard is investigating the causes of the grounding and the subsequent fuel leak, it said.
The TT Line ferry Marco Polo ran aground south of Karlshamn (southern Sweden) on Sunday morning and its 75 passengers were quickly evacuated.
An investigation was initiated into violations of maritime law. The fuel spread until it landed on a coastal strip in the municipality of Sölvesborg in the late afternoon.
The coast guard is working to “determine the sequence of events,” Mattias Lindholm, head of press relations at the coast guard, told AFP.
“The ship ran aground and then continued for a few kilometers, leaking fuel, until it ran aground again, where it remains today,” he said.
Authorities are trying to determine how much fuel escaped from the ferry.
“We have recovered 2 m3 of fuel so far and are working on an estimate (of the leak) based on aerial observations,” he added.