After a very tricky two-day salvage operation, the bulker Belle Rose was refloated this morning and dragged off a reef that is a famous dive site in the central Philippines.
Malayan Towage and Salvaging Corp spent two days using three tugs to bring the ship slowly 100 m backwards to deeper waters. Around 500 tons of ballast water was discharged to help refloat the ship.
The ship ran aground in Monad Shoal off northern Cebu last week.
The ship is now being inspected before being towed to a yard in southern Cebu.
Local politicians and Greenpeace have demanded the Japanese owner of the vessel pay significant fines to help restore the damaged reef, which serves as a shark sanctuary.
As well as the owner paying, it is to be hoped that (of the all Filipino crew) the OOW and Captain of the v/l are also charged. It was interesting reading the local papers, it was big news when the v/l grounded, with comments about foreign ships in areas where they shouldn’t be, but the it transpired that the crew were “locals”, it all went much quieter.