On Tuesday evening the Russian fishing trawler Oleg Naydenov sank 15 nautical miles south of the shore of Gran Canaria Island.
Gran Canaria is one of the southern Canary Islands in the Spanish archipelago close to Morocco.
On Wednesday the local authorities of Sea Rescue Service made an investigation if any oil spillage was present, because the ship had fully been loaded with fuel.
During the weekend the fishing trawler had a fire on board in Las Palmas port just before its sailing. Sea rescue authorities towed the ship away from the harbor in order to take control over the fire.
Photo: El Mundo
According to Salvamento Maritimo in Spain, in the late hours of Monday night the fire was completely extinguished.
Due to the damages after the fire, the fishing vessel sunk on its way back.
As reported by Greenpeace, on board of the trawler there might have been up to 1,400 tons of fuel. The ship’s sinking in a 2,400 depth on the bottom sea may cause an environmental disaster.
The location of the incident is south of Maspalomas beach, famous with its sand dunes.
Back in 2002 Spain faced its worst eco disaster when the oil tanker Prestige sank off near north-east coastline.