CAPE TOWN'S CLIFTON’S NEW GUEST RUN AGROUND ON CLIFTON FIRST BEACH
15 May 2012
Cape Town residents and tourists woke up with a shock on Saturday morning 12th May 2012. Peering through the thick fog only to find a Japanese Fishing trawler, Eihatsu Maru had ran aground on Clifton 1st beach at approximately 05:15 Saturday morning. All crew members aboard the ship were not harmed and have been rescued from the 50m fishing trawler.
The cause of the vessels grounding is still unknown, there has been said that the vessel had over 40 tonnes of fish and over 80 tonnes of diesel aboard. Officials started their attempts by first removing the fish and diesel to decrease the weight of the vessel, allowing it to be easier to move with a tug boat.
On Saturday authorities had order for a tug boat from Simons Town to take on the attempt to tow this large vessel out from Clifton. This mission was aborted after the towing rope on the tug boat snapped due to the trawlers weight.
Marine engineers had planned to fit a metal plate to the ship to allow it to be tugged. Inflatable barriers had also been deployed around the ship to prevent a possible oil spill.
More attempts are continuing to be made to get this trawler away from Clifton Residents beach.
