Russian Trawler Sinks Off Spain's Northwestern Coast

The Oleg Naydenov, a Russian fishing trawler full of fuel sunk off the coast of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands late on Tuesday.

Sea rescue authorities said on Wednesday they checked to see if there had been any spillage. The trawler sank some 15 nautical miles south of Gran Canaria, one of the most southerly islands in the Spanish archipelago off the northwestern African coast near Morocco.

It caught fire over the weekend in the island's port of Las Palmas when it was ready to set sail, the port authority said. The ship was towed away from the area to keep the fire under control and was on its way back when it sank.

"The Marine Rescue Service has mobilized anti-pollution resources to check whether there has been any (fuel) spillage and to act if necessary," the unit, part of Spain's Public Works and Transport ministry, said in a statement.

The trawler, which could have had up to 1,400 tons of fuel on board according to data from Greenpeace, sank to a depth of about 2,400 meters, south of the beach of Maspalomas, which is famed for its sand dunes.

Spain’s Salvamento Maritimo reports that fire was completely extinguished as of late Monday night. The worst environmental disaster the Spain has endured was in 2002 when the Prestige oil tanker off the northwestern coast.