CAR tyres and containers have been found on the sea floor as part of salvage efforts from the YM Efficiency, the ship that lost 81 containers over the side off the coast of Newcastle.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority began an operation on December 3 to find and assess containers using a remotely operated underwater vehicle.
According to AMSA, the ROUV was deployed close to shore just south of Fingal Bay. The ROUV identified several tyres and what, according to AMSA, could be the remains of a shipping container in about 20-30 metres of water.
On 10 December the ROUV was deployed about 32km east of Redhead, near where the containers were lost from the ship.
The ROUV found two containers on the seafloor and was able to take images of the container numbers.
“AMSA has confirmed that the containers were part of the YM Efficiency’s manifest,” AMSA said in a public statement.
“The containers are damaged but appear to be intact and resting in about 120 metres of water.”
The ROUV assessments are to continue during coming weeks as weather conditions permit.
The second phase of the surface operations aimed at finding the containers on the sea floor also has continued during the last month.
The second phase involves sonar (contracted by the ship’s insurance company) to locate the outstanding containers.
Poor weather has to date hampered these efforts, albeit 254km2 of sea floor has been scanned and two additional targets identified.
AMSA
