#mowat

MV Farley Mowat raised in Shelburne Harbour

The anti-sealing ship MV Farley Mowat is afloat in the Shelburne Harbour.

The vessel sank on June 25 and the Canadian Coast Guard has been working ever since to lift the ship from the bottom of the harbour.

Farley Mowat ship to be raised from bottom of Shelburne Harbour

Keith Laidlaw, the senior response officer with the Coast Guard said it has taken six weeks to patch and prepare the vessel to be lifted.

The coast guard installed 22 pumps throughout the ship to remove the millions of litres of water inside.

“This morning at 2:30, we started pumping the ship at low tide and by about 5:30 we had the vessel up and floating,” Laidlaw said.

“It isn’t your typical vessel, it was in the process of being scrapped so the deck was full of holes and the vessel was cut up pretty bad so we had a lot of work to secure the vessel and make it water tight in order to pump it out,” he said.

Storied history

The federal government originally seized the ship in 2008 after its captain and first officer were arrested and accused of interfering with that season’s seal hunt.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which owned the ship, said the vessel was merely monitoring the seal hunt. But Dutch national Alex Cornelissen and Swede Peter Hammarstedt were later convicted of violating the Fisheries Act and Canada’s marine mammal regulations.

Video, photographs and radar evidence showed the Mowat pursuing and harassing sealers.

The vessel was first towed to Sydney following the arrests. It was then sold, with the idea to refit the vessel in Lunenburg and use it for expeditions.

The refit didn’t happen and was put up for sale again. Last fall, the vessel was being towed when one of the tugs had a mechanical problem and the Farley Mowat was brought into Shelburne, according to the Coast Guard newspaper.

Bulk of pollutants will be removed

The town of Shelburne is suing the current owner, scrap dealer Tracy Dodds, in an attempt to collect $14,000 in unpaid dock and berthage fees. Dodds bought the vessel in 2013 after it was sold at auction.

The coast guard was brought in to deal with pollutants leaking from the derelict ship after it sank on June 25 in the Port of Shelburne.

“When the vessel first sank, we were under the impression and all indications were that there were no pollutants on board the vessel, that it had been cleaned off. But over the last six weeks we’ve recovered a significant amount of product that has leaked out of it and we have quite a bit left on board right now to pump out, like dirty billage water and stuff,” Laidlaw said.

Laidlaw said after the vessel sank, the coast guard put containment booms around it and have been collecting any pollutants that escaped with absorbent materials. The coast guard is using vacuum trucks to clean the vessel of as much of the pollutants as possible.

Laidlaw said while it won’t be completely oil free, the bulk of the pollutants will be removed.

“What has been released into the environment was very little compared to what we’ve recovered,” he said.

Laidlaw said as soon as the vessel is cleaned, it will be turned over to the owner.