Efforts To Salvage 4 Stranded Ships Prove Futile

Efforts to salvage four stranded ships in Russia's waters of the Pacific have proved futile, the Vladivostok salvage coordination centre told RIA Novosti on Tuesday. Last week's severe storms stranded four ships with about 90 crew members. There are no victims, the Vladivostok salvage coordination centre said. The salvage tow-boat Atlas has been trying to set afloat the motor ship Bulunkan (the Arctic Ocean Shipping Company) for two days already. In the experts' estimation, the Atlas alone cannot cope with this task. One more high-capacity tow-boat is needed. The timber ship Lider /Vladivostok/ is still stranded near the port of Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky. The salvage tow-boat Irbis is trying to set the Lider afloat but her efforts have also proved futile. When the weather conditions improved, the salvage efforts of the fish trawler of the Primorye farm "Tikhy Okean" resumed. The storm stranded the trawler close to the island of Anuchina (the South Kurils). But the efforts to salvage her are not successful still. In the experts' opinion, it will be impossible to salvage the forth ship - fish trawler Kibartai stranded in the Avachin bay (the Kamchatka peninsula).