On December 30, the Santos Port Authority (SPA) concluded an emergency operation to deplete the water containing oily residues inside the ship Professor W. Besnard, which started on the 27th. The situation only reached this point because the vessel was abandoned. The oceanographic ship is moored in Santos without undergoing maintenance, posing environmental and navigation safety risks and requiring SPA to intervene. The Port Authority asked the Instituto do Mar (Imar), the entity that owned the vessel, to take steps to remove the water from inside of it, but Imar claimed it did not have enough financial resources to take such measures. Thus, SPA mobilized emergency response resources. The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Resources (Ibama) supported the action.
Source: Datamar News