Thousands of liters of oil spilled into Pukavik Bay in Blekinge when the passenger ferry Marco Polo ran aground last autumn. Now, Sölvesborg Municipality, which was severely affected by the spill, will receive 17 million kronor in compensation from the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), reports SVT News Blekinge.
It was in October last year that the vessel ran aground twice, and around 165,000 liters of oil spilled into the sea off Blekinge. Municipalities along the coast are responsible for oil cleanup on land, and in March, Sölvesborg applied for state compensation for the cleanup work.
The passenger ferry TT-Line Marco Polo, which is flagged in Cyprus, was en route from Trelleborg to Karlshamn and then on to Klaipeda in Lithuania when it ran aground twice. An investigation has shown that a GPS on board was broken and that the crew relied solely on it in the fog.
