Japanese salvage vessel to arrive Wednesday night

The much-awaited underwater survey of the sunken MT Solar 1 will start soon with the arrival of the Japanese salvage vessel Shinsei Maru Wednesday evening, coast guard officials said. There will be no more formal welcome for Shinsei Maru which is scheduled to arrive at 6 p.m. in Iloilo province. "It will proceed directly to Iloilo. There's no time to waste. Its work will help us find the right way to get the Solar 1 off the Guimaras area," dzBB radio quoted Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Coyme as saying. Coyme said the biggest asset of Shinsei Maru will be its remotely operated vehicle, which will go underwater and take snapshots of the Solar 1 and the area around it. With the images, Coast Guard authorities from the United States, Japan and Australia can then come up with a plan and devise ways to get the Solar 1 off the bottom of the sea. The Coast Guard earlier said the tanker was still leaking bunker oil at the rate of 250 liters an hour. "With the vessel, we'll get photos of the Solar 1, particularly its exact condition and position. We'll use the images to determine how to get the tanker," Coyme said. Petron Corp. and Sunshine Maritime had hired a Japanese salvage firm to send the Shinsei Maru to the Philippines. MT Solar 1 was hired earlier this month by Petron to ferry some two million liters of bunker oil from Bataan to Zamboanga. But the tanker sank off Guimaras last August 11 after encountering rough waves. Its captain and crew are now undergoing an investigation from a Special Board of Marine Inquiry in Manila. On the other hand, the Shinsei Maru was originally due to arrive last Saturday, but mechanical problems delayed it for several days.-GMANews.TV