2023-08-02 18:48:04
The Skellig Light II was built in 2002, is 30 meters long and is the first gransolero from Vigo to be dismantled in 10 years. This is how he decided after accepting the scrapping plan for Ireland, the country in which he is a flag bearer, before the shortage of fishing quotas and the skyrocketing price of fuel Marine. At the plant where it is being treated, the DDR Vessels factory in Gijón, the ship now shows an unrecognizable appearance. Her skeleton has been devoured by the machines they use to carefully extract her parts, with the aim of contributing to her correct recycling. The hull of the boat has partially vanished, the bow has lost its pointed shape and it no longer has a fishing park to pack hake or raptor specimens. They empty the ship of an endless number of heavy metals that one day were capable of sailing the sea.
It is a double reading image. On the one hand pessimistic because it means ending a piece of olive life, with a piece of its economy; but also positive because a “sustainable” solution is being given to a problem that is having a strong impact on the continent, contributing to the value chain and taking advantage of the resource, even if it is to write its final point… What is certain is that the catches that this ship took each campaign to the market will not be replaced. Nor will the employment he generated, the wealth he left in the city and obviously his presence in the estuary, increasingly deserted, return.
Because the Skellig Light II is just one example of the 2,550 ships that are on their way to being scrapped or have been scrapped in the European Union (EU) since last 2016. That year, seven years ago, the Community Executive gave the green light to a list of ship recycling facilities that, given the boom in naval corpses, has only multiplied.
The centers have gone from the 18 counted in the first registry – with a presence in 10 member states: Belgium (1), Denmark (2), France (3), Latvia (1), Lithuania (3), the Netherlands (2), Poland (1), Portugal (1), Spain (1) and the United Kingdom (3)– at 48 that appear in the last modificationto which three new Turkish dismantling lines have been added -after the successive entry of nations such as Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Norway or Finland-.
According to the regulation created by Brussels, “ship owners are required to ensure that ships destined for recycling are only recycled at ship recycling facilities that appear on the European list of such facilities.” Despite this, this list of factories includes 12 plants located in third countries.
The great teardown
If one thing is clear, it is that a new wave of scrapping heads towards Europe, if not a tsunami of tombs for ships, and everything indicates that it will hit the sector hard. Bearing in mind that Ireland but also France have deployed support programs to encourage part of the dismantling of their respective fleets, only so far in 2023 have 238 community ships ended up in a naval cemetery: eight out of 10 distributed among France (92), Ireland (38), Spain (49) and Portugal (12).
The computation assumes 44% more than the 165 boats that were recycled throughout the past 2022, and shows that the aid is having an effect among shipowners. Among the latter, many small Gallic ships such as Lou Calypso, Gwalarn II, L’Avenir Du Mousse or Le Bonovo, although there are larger ones such as the Magali, registered this Monday and which exceeds 80.7 meters in length.
The high number of ships that are opting for this drastic solution –in the midst of a uncertain landscape at the legislative level with restrictions that have undoubtedly represented a turning point for European fishing, such as the veto on bottom gear in the 87 areas of the North Atlantic– it is foreseeable that it will increase despite the fact that the number is already large, more so if It should be taken into account that countries like Spain have not yet approved their scrapping plan.
It is not possible to count how many are the point guards that could be waiting for it, but how it will be. As Faro de Vigo, from the Prensa Ibérica group, advanced, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food commanded by Minister Luis Planas sent at the end of last July to different fishing organizations a “draft scale” with public funds for permanent stoppages. According to it, for an average Gran Sol trawler of 33 meters and around 325 GT (gross tonnage), the shipowner would receive about 1.15 million euros.
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“Depending on when (the supports) come out and the conditions they put, there will be some (ship owners) who take advantage and others who do notas always happens in all the subsidies that exist for the renewal or restructuring of the sector”, explains Jesús Picatto, CEO of DDR Vessels, in statements to this newspaper, noting that they have already accepted orders from France and Ireland, derived from the elimination of the fleet that both countries are financing.
The next ship that will arrive at your plant, with the capacity to recycle boats of up to 169.9 meters in length, even higher if they can carry out a null or negative capsize movement, will be one from the United Kingdom, which, like many others, has also suffered the devastating consequences of Brexit. Also, in addition to the Skellig Light II, these facilities house the last breaths of the Atlantic tuna boat, a famous resident of the port of Vigo that left the Beiramar dock in May after being moored without moving for eight years.
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