Prestige: Ifremer intervention on the wrecks
Against what they had expected, the continuous rising of hydrocarbons observed above the wrecks obliged the Spanish authorities to contract in late November 2002 a capable submarine. For its oceanographic research, IFREMER has one of the rare submarine able to dive at 6,000 m, the Nautile. It was contracted by SASEMAR through economic interest group GENAVIR which operates IFREMER oceanographic fleet.
From the 2nd to the15th of December, the Nautile and its transporting medium the Atalante had for first mission to locate the wreck, to observe the surroundings and to identify the leakage spots. Moreover, the Spanish scientific committee, founded on December the 9th to deal with the problem of the wreck, told them to characterize the geometry of the different openings and cracks, to initiate sealing tests and to measure the fuel temperature and its vertical movements.
Thanks to the Atalante’s sounder and the Nautile’s sonar, the bow part of the Prestige was found immediately, lying at 3,830 metres. The stern part, 3.5 km distant, on a slope in a hilly relief, was found afterwards lying at 3,565 metres. During this first stage, 10 dives were carried out, for a total of 40 hours of work in deep water, during which many close observations were made by the Robin (little robot remote-controlled by the crew of the Nautile) and one leak was sealed. The seeps were estimated by a total of 60 m³/day.
Operations undertaken by IFREMER to plug the leaks of the Prestige wrecks (Source: Ifremer)
Last update: June 2003