The Environmental Safety Group has urged the Gibraltar Port Authority to swiftly implement safety recommendations from the OS 35 Report to prevent future ship collisions.
The group’s message comes after a collision between two ships in the Bay in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The incident happened at around 1am when the liquefied natural gas tanker SM Kestrel “came into contact” with the bulk carrier Diamond Star in the western anchorage, according to a spokesperson for the Gibraltar Government.
At the time, the LNG carrier was manoeuvring to sail from the anchorage, while the bulk carrier was anchored.
“It is with great relief to learn that the deafening blasts from ships horns offshore in the early hours of Tuesday morning, did not result in injury or pollution of the marine environment,” said a statement from the ESG.
“The ESG tracked the situation from when a minor collision was confirmed but very few details emerged of the incident until late afternoon.”
“The group understands that more information will be released on how this happened given our state-of-the-art vessel tracking technology in place.”
It noted that the incident must serve as an urgent reminder to the Port to respond to recommendations made, in the OS 35 Report which was published last month, addressing procedures governing ship movements in and out of our waters.
“These must be revised to reduce the risk of further collisions from happening,” said the statement.
“These recommendations are not only necessary but best practice and should, in our view, be implemented without further delay.”
The recommendations include the Gibraltar Port VTS to formalise the procedure for advising departing vessels, with no pilot embarked, of the recommended route for departing the Western Anchorage.
And that Gibraltar Pilots are recommended to provide masters, on arrival and on their website, with the information required of the option to take a pilot from anchorage to sea.
And, formalise the information provided to masters for departing the Western Anchorage on arrival
Lastly, that the Gibraltar Port Authority is recommended to consider introducing compulsory pilotage for vessels departing the western Anchorage, the ESG stated.
