On Friday, December 8 at close to 4 p.m. a boat of Panamanian flag ran aground in Manzanillo Beach, Limón, apparently, water was entering the boat and therefore the captain decided to run aground so it wouldn’t sink.

The captain of the boat explained that he was headed towards the Limon port to load some materials when the emergency occurred; local authorities have kept the boat under custody since with the hopes of getting it out of the area fast due to the danger of a fuel leak which could cause contamination in the waters of the wildlife refuge.

However, the Maritime Ports Division of the Ministry of Public Transportation confirmed that the vessel has not presented any fuel leaks at this point and they are coordinating with the Ministry of Environment the best way to extract the diesel and in this way prevent any leaks in the ocean; according to the authorities, the bad weather of the last few days has prevented the actions to be carried out in a prompt manner.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to think that the institutions have left this situation on the side and that is just now, five days later, that we are addressing it, that is NOT the case at all. We have been following up on this. The problem is that the weather hasn’t allowed us to take the fuel out and remove the boat from the area”, clarified Fernando Mora, vice-minister of Environment.

The authorities have inspected the vessel and have confirmed that it wasn’t carrying any additional fuel or load of any type, the diesel it has is only the necessary for its operation, estimated in 1600 gallons of diesel and 15 liters of hydraulic oil.

Because the Manzanillo Beach is part of the Gandoca Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, the situation has caused alarm among the neighbors.