Bisso Lufesa, a full-service marine contractor, successfully salvaged a luxury passenger vessel that sank in the environmentally pristine Galapagos Islands. The crew of the dive support vessel Caballao de Trabajo raised the sunken M/V Parranda and safely towed it 80 nautical miles out to sea, where it was scuttled in a deepwater location designated by Galapagos National Park authorities.
The steel-hull M/V Parranda caught fire and sank Jan. 14 in 65 ft of water in the national park off Bartolome Island. There were no injuries aboard the luxury passenger vessel, which was rented by tourists for local excursions.
The 17-day project was particularly challenging because of the remote location 600 nautical miles off the coast of Ecuador and the environmentally sensitive area where the passenger vessel sank, said Mauricio Garrido, Bisso Lufesa’s director of business development for Latin America.
“The project had to be carefully planned and we had to pay very close attention to the area’s pristine habitat,” Garrido said. “Due to the remoteness, we had to be sure everything we needed was onboard.”
Pollution controls used by the salvage crew included an oil containment boom, a portable skimmer and oil sorbent materials. Structural debris also had to be removed from the seabed.
(www.bissolufesa.com)