The Diplomat
Verdemar-Ecologistas en Acción has submitted a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which it denounces the occupation of Spanish waters by Gibraltar in the Bay of Algeciras and the Alboran Sea by ships that occupy a sheet of water as an area waiting to bunker.
In the letter, Europa Press reports, the environmentalists assure that the ships that transfer fuel in Gibraltar and load in Tangier-Med (Morocco) have occupied a sheet of water for these purposes “outside the waters in dispute against the coasts of La Línea de la Concepción”. “There they anchor and wait for the call to bunker in Gibraltar, without this anchorage being recorded in the Port of Algeciras,” they point out.
Verdemar recalls in its writing that they already reported this situation on several occasions in 2017 and that they received responses from the General Directorate of the Merchant Navy and the Maritime Captaincy of Algeciras in which they said that “the anchored ships are in waters of jurisdiction.” Spanish”.
Environmentalists indicate that, according to Royal Decree 958/2002, of September 13, on fuel supply facilities in ports of general interest, these oil tankers must comply with Spanish regulations.
For this reason, they request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “a traceability report on the transfer of fuel and anchoring payments made by the oil tankers that use these anchorages in the Bay of Algeciras, as well as any document that may clarify their response to the previous complaints. “.
