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A person fell overboard from the 'Victoria 1' on the afternoon of Jan 29, 2025. The incident occurred in the waters around the island of Ulkomatala in Helsinki. It was only when the vessel reached the port of Helsinki that friends of the person discovered that he had disappeared. Surveillance camera footage shows a person falling overboard shortly after 3 p.m. An SAR operation was carried out with the help of patrol boats and a helicopter of the Finland Coast Guard. Other vessels operating in the area were also asked to help in the search. Shortly before 7 p.m. the Coast Guard was ending the search, as no one had been found. The assessment was that the person will not be found alive. The water was cold, the visibility poor, so it did not make sense to continue.

The cleanup of the oil lost from the 'Volgoneft-239' has been largely completed, the Russian state marine rescue service Morspas announced on Jan 27. After the tanker broke up, the stern section drifted aground on a rocky shore off Taman. The battered hull began leaking large quantities of fuel oil. The tanker was more than 50 years old, and not designed for winter storm conditions in the Baltic Sea. It was carrying about 4,000 of tonnes of mazut. An estimated 3,700 tonnes of the cargo spilled into the marine environment, fouling beaches from Taman to Anapa. Morspas responded to the 'Volgoneft-239' with a mission to reduce the risk of further oil leaks. Using earthmoving equipment, the salvors built a berm around the entire stern section, enclosing any further petroleum releases. The berm was reinforced with jacks to protect the wreck from wintertime wave action. Before pumping off the tank contents, the salvors had to restore the tanker's cargo heating systems, which are necessary to move the sludge-like material, asmazut only begins to liquefy at about 43 degrees C. From Jany 19-25, 1,500 tons of fuel oil were pumped out of the tanker into bitumen carriers and then transferred onto 20 railway tank car. A truck platform reinforced with concrete slabs was installed on the berm next to the tanker. This supported the trucks receiving fuel oil from the vessel. Eight vehicles were involved in the round-the-clock pumping operations, and over the entire period, 87 truckloads were removed from the tanker. The remaining fuel oil that could not be unloaded by the ship's equipment was pumped out using hand pumps. Meanwhile, cleanup teams boomed off the surrounding area and used mechanical and hand removal to abate the oil. Morspas' Azov-Black Sea branch has deployed small boat teams daily to rocky, inaccessible shorelines, and reports that it has manually collected nearly two tonnes of oil-contaminated soil from hard-to-reach places. No new sources of pollution were identified. They were collecting small local areas and also finishing work in the area of Cape Panagia on cleaning the coastal strip, collecting and delivering the spent soil for disposal. Now that the fuel oil has been removed from the wreck, the salvage operation turns to wreck removal. The plan is to cut up the 'Volgoneft-239' in place and haul it away in sections. Taman's port captain has requested that the wreckage be removed by the end of March. The 'Volgoneft-212' and the remains of her cargo are still on the bottom, though vents have been plugged to prevent leakages. The fuel oil that was released into the marine environment could take up to 10 years to degrade. Report with photos: https://maritime-executive.com/article/cleanup-of-wrecked-russian-tanker-completed

After a series of incidents with broken cables on the bottom of the North Sea, Global Connect, the largest cable operator in the Nordic region, is now calling for a response across the Nordic countries to increase the protection of critical infrastructure. The 'Vezhen' is suspected of having caused the latest cable break in the Baltic Sea. Few people believe that it is coincidence that has led to the breakage of submarine cables in recent months. Suspicion of sabotage is widespread. This has prompted Global Connect to appeal to the Danish government to ensure better protection of the infrastructure on the seabed: “You have to be aware that submarine cables are an integral part of our infrastructure, and there is not much that works in modern society if our main routes for data transmission disappear. As it is today, we can easily handle it – like a storm or a fishing boat that is going to pull a cable over. But what we have seen here recently is that it is happening more systematically, and then it can no longer be handled by a single company,” said the company’s director, Martin Lipper, calling for a contingency plan across the Nordic countries to help protect the infrastructure. The Bulgarian shipping company behind the 'Vezhen' acknowledged that the ship may have caused the rupture of a cable in the Baltic Sea between Gotland and Latvia, but denies that it was a deliberate act.

The 'CG 'Active' and CG 'Terrell Horne' have intercepted a boat that was carrying 21 migrants on Jan 27, 2025, at around 10.45 p.m., 20 nautical miles off the coast of Point Loma. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol notified them about a 40-foot panga-style vessel headed north to the maritime boundary line and U.S. waters. The Coast Guard Cutters were diverted to the scene. Both cutters launched boarding teams and, with CBP’s assistance, successfully interdicted the vessel. All 21 people on board claimed Mexican nationality, but two were identified as Guatemalan and Salvadoran nationals. All boat people were transferred to Border Patrol custody.

The cleanup of the oil lost from the 'Volgoneft-239' has been largely completed, the Russian state marine rescue service Morspas announced on Jan 27. After the tanker broke up, the stern section drifted aground on a rocky shore off Taman. The battered hull began leaking large quantities of fuel oil. The tanker was more than 50 years old, and not designed for winter storm conditions in the Baltic Sea. It was carrying about 4,000 of tonnes of mazut. An estimated 3,700 tonnes of the cargo spilled into the marine environment, fouling beaches from Taman to Anapa. Morspas responded to the 'Volgoneft-239' with a mission to reduce the risk of further oil leaks. Using earthmoving equipment, the salvors built a berm around the entire stern section, enclosing any further petroleum releases. The berm was reinforced with jacks to protect the wreck from wintertime wave action. Before pumping off the tank contents, the salvors had to restore the tanker's cargo heating systems, which are necessary to move the sludge-like material, asmazut only begins to liquefy at about 43 degrees C. From Jany 19-25, 1,500 tons of fuel oil were pumped out of the tanker into bitumen carriers and then transferred onto 20 railway tank car. A truck platform reinforced with concrete slabs was installed on the berm next to the tanker. This supported the trucks receiving fuel oil from the vessel. Eight vehicles were involved in the round-the-clock pumping operations, and over the entire period, 87 truckloads were removed from the tanker. The remaining fuel oil that could not be unloaded by the ship's equipment was pumped out using hand pumps. Meanwhile, cleanup teams boomed off the surrounding area and used mechanical and hand removal to abate the oil. Morspas' Azov-Black Sea branch has deployed small boat teams daily to rocky, inaccessible shorelines, and reports that it has manually collected nearly two tonnes of oil-contaminated soil from hard-to-reach places. No new sources of pollution were identified. They were collecting small local areas and also finishing work in the area of Cape Panagia on cleaning the coastal strip, collecting and delivering the spent soil for disposal. Now that the fuel oil has been removed from the wreck, the salvage operation turns to wreck removal. The plan is to cut up the 'Volgoneft-239' in place and haul it away in sections. Taman's port captain has requested that the wreckage be removed by the end of March. The 'Volgoneft-212' and the remains of her cargo are still on the bottom, though vents have been plugged to prevent leakages. The fuel oil that was released into the marine environment could take up to 10 years to degrade. Report with photos: https://maritime-executive.com/article/cleanup-of-wrecked-russian-tanker-completed