North Sea salvage operation begins

THE HAGUE: The recovery of nearly 300 containers that were knocked from one the of the world’s largest container ships in the North Sea began yesterday.

Two specialist Dutch salvage vessels left the port of Ijmuiden on Friday, the Dutch infrastructure ministry said. Another rescue ship is en route from Norway and has encountered bad weather along the way. One of the ships is set to determine the exact locations of the containers on the sea floor.

The recovery operation could take months.

Of the nearly 300 containers that fell from the MSC Zoe during a storm on January 2, some have already washed upon Dutch shores. Debris has also reached Germany.

Some of the containers held hazardous materials such as peroxide powder and lithium batteries, which pose environmental dangers. |