On February seventh, 2024, a thriller vessel started leaking oil and ran aground on a reef off the coast of Tobago, one of many two major islands of the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
The ensuing spill has coated seashores, wildlife, and over 80 kilometres of the Caribbean Sea, main the federal government to proclaim a “nationwide emergency”. Over per week later, the vessel stays unidentified by authorities.
Dive groups and an autonomous submersible have discovered a reputation for the vessel — the “Gulfstream” — however have been unable to find an Worldwide Maritime Group (IMO) registration quantity that will conclusively establish it.
Analysis by Bellingcat, together with volunteers in our Discord group, suggests an evidence: the thriller vessel is an unpowered barge, a part of a so-called articulated tug and barge system that didn’t have a registration quantity to start with.
At 7:20am native time on the seventh, a wrecked vessel leaking oil was referred to as into the Tobago Emergency Administration Authority. Just some hours later, a picture taken by the Sentinel-2 satellite tv for pc captured the vessel, in addition to an oil slick over 10 kilometres lengthy to the northeast that subsequently ran aground on the shallow coral reef instantly off of Tobago.
A photograph posted by person “Wussy” on ShipSpotting.com reveals one thing attention-grabbing concerning the submerged vessel: the presence of “pigeonhole” ladders on the aspect of the hull. These are clearly seen close to the left-hand aspect of the vessel and in addition barely seen on the suitable fringe of the photograph.
These pigeonholes are an uncommon characteristic as a result of they’re usually not current on self-powered ships, however as an alternative used on unpowered barges, which can be uncrewed and require exterior entry from the water.
As a result of un-powered barges are regulated in another way than self-powered vessels, open supply details about them is spottier. Nevertheless, Bellingcat did establish one barge named the Gulfstream, related to a tug boat named Marlin, on the web site TugboatInformation.com.
In keeping with the positioning, “[The Marlin] was married to a 449(ft) 60,000 bbl double-hulled barge; the Gulfstream.” The tug and the barge operated as a part of an “articulated tug and barge system,” or ATB. The tug is coupled to the rear of the barge in a particular notch within the hull. This may be seen on this picture by person Hans Rosenkranz from FleetMon.com.
Word additionally on this picture, that whereas the Marlin tug has been painted with an IMO registration quantity, the barge itself solely carries the title “Gulfstream” and textual content that reads “Philadelphia.”
Tugboatinformation.com additionally consists of a number of different photos of the vessel. Two had been taken in 2009 and present the vessel working closely laden and low within the water.
A 3rd picture on Tugboat Data, undated and uncredited, exhibits the vessel’s bow with extra of its hull uncovered. Bellingcat recognized the picture as one other {photograph} taken in 2008 by Rosenkranz, and obtained the next decision copy. In these photos, it’s potential to match the place of each units of pigeonholes (pink and inexperienced), in addition to rubbing strakes (outlined in orange), to the capsized vessel in Tobago. The variety of pigeonholes between the 2 seen strakes on the capsized vessel matches the quantity between the decrease two strakes on the Gulfstream barge.
Moreover, a sequence of 5 sacrificial anodes (purple) could be seen alongside the bow of the Gulfstream. These would have been changed many instances between 2008 and 2024, however are nonetheless positioned in very related areas.
Moreover, clues can be found from dive footage screened throughout a press convention by the Tobago Home of Meeting, which exhibits a construction on the reef backside (the footage begins 16:07 into the video). This construction, presumably misidentified as “the ship’s mast,” bears a resemblance to the lighting towers on the deck of the Gulfstream barge.
Whereas images from 2008 and 2009 present the Marlin/Gulfstream ATB system working in america, data on vessel possession monitoring database Equasis present that the Marlin was bought in 2012 and bought by San Martin Group Ltd, a Panamanian firm. In 2014, AIS knowledge exhibits that the vessel started frequently visiting petroleum ports in Venezuela and the Caribbean.
Equasis data solely present the sale of the Marlin, as a result of un-powered barges should not registered in the identical approach, as talked about earlier. Nevertheless, after the sale date, the vessels had been additionally captured by imagery obtainable on Google Earth, which clearly exhibits that the tug Marlin continues to be working with its “married” barge Gulfstream, as on this picture from a petroleum port in Maracaibo, Venezuela on March eighth, 2015.
Bellingcat adopted the Marlin/Gulfstream utilizing AIS knowledge and satellite tv for pc imagery till October seventeenth, 2020, when it transmitted its final AIS place on the ASTINAVE shipyard in Amuay, Venezuela. Satellite tv for pc imagery exhibits that the barge remained at ASTINAVE for a while.
On February 18, 2021, ASTINAVE posted a picture on Instagram displaying the tug Marlin and the strict of the Gulfstream, with the caption “Posicionamiento de embarcacion en acople de trabajo,” or “Positioning of the vessel beneath coupling mode.”
On March 23, 2021, the house owners of the Marlin/Gulfstream, San Martin Group Ltd, bought the vessels to a different Panamanian firm, Star Items Petroleum S.A, which was registered in 2014.
For over a 12 months, the vessel remained on the ASTINAVE shipyard, in accordance with imagery from Planet Labs PBC and Google Earth. It was final seen in Planet imagery on February 22, 2022, the place it’s proven floating simply offshore from the drydock. The vessel has not been seen at ASTINAVE after this date. It additionally has not transmitted an AIS message since.
There are few the reason why a vessel wouldn’t transmit AIS alerts. One widespread purpose is to obscure the origin and vacation spot of the cargo it’s transporting, although there isn’t any conclusive proof as to why alerts from the Marlin/Gulfstream ceased.
Ships in so-called “ghost fleets” are generally used to move sanctioned oil from Iran and Venezuela. In 2022, the Monetary Occasions reported that the variety of ships which have gone darkish to function in ghost fleets has tripled since 2019. Working beneath the radar, these vessels are ceaselessly poorly maintained — Reuters reported final 12 months that greater than half of Venezuela’s state-owned fleet of oil tankers are “so run down that they need to be instantly repaired or taken out of service.”
The everyday lifespan of a tanker is 30 years. As of 2014, the Marlin and the Gulfstream have been in service for 50 and 48 years, respectively.
The Gulfstream barge has a singular form, however it’s not seen in photos of the Tobago web site. To judge the plausibility of the Gulfstream being the wrecked vessel, Bellingcat used ship-spotting images and satellite tv for pc imagery to construct a to-scale 3D mannequin of the Gulfstream barge. As the underside of the vessel will not be seen in obtainable ship-spotting imagery, this mannequin is approximate, utilizing diagrams of different articulated-tug-and-barge methods obtainable on-line.
Primarily based on how the vessel sits on the reef, with its bow and starboard aspect sticking farther out of the water than the extra deeply submerged stern, it appears believable that this is identical vessel and that the tug-boat coupling is hidden beneath the water floor.
A to-scale comparability with high-res Planet SkySat imagery exhibits that the scale and form is an virtually precise match.
Star Items Petroleum S.A. doesn’t have a web based presence and its Panamanian registration paperwork comprise no contact info. Bellingcat was in a position to find the LinkedIn web page of the corporate’s Govt Vice President. He didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
On Monday, February twelfth, a Sentinel-2 picture confirmed an oil slick snaking northwest from the crash web site, wherein it gave the impression to be nonetheless actively leaking. This oil extends for not less than 40 kilometres into the Caribbean Sea, displaying the continuing extent of the spill.
In a Tuesday X put up, one Tobagonian shared aerial imagery of a seaside in Scarborough, Tobago. Coated in thick black oil a number of days beforehand, clean-up work by native volunteers had eliminated a lot of the seen oil, the start of an arduous remediation course of from this environmental catastrophe.
Further analysis by members of Bellingcat’s Discord group, together with Lotte van der Waal, Thomas Bordeaux and Ethan Doyle. 3D modelling by Alison Malouf.
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