VLADIVOSTOK, November 6 (Itar-Tass) —— The rescue ship Rubin of the Sakhalin sea rescue department will attempt to catch on an underwater object, which the echo depth sounder had spotted in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Shantarskie Islands, where the bulk carrier Amurskaya went missing on October 28. It is needed to catch on the yet-to-be unidentified object to begin the preparations to the dives, deputy director general of the Sakhalin sea rescue department Viktor Shamin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the weather off the Shantarskie Island is unfavourable for diving, as the winds are 17-18 metres per second and the waves are two metres high, Shamin said.
“The echo depth sounder has spotted the underwater object at the depth of 24 metres, the object has a height of 9-10 metres and was confirmed by the fuel discharge,” the press service of the Russian Transport Ministry reported. “A slight oil film is seen on the surface,” the press service said.
On November 4, the rescue ship Rubin has already attempted to catch on the underwater object, but failed to do it.
The bulk carrier Amurskaya set out from the port Kiran in the Tuguro-Chumikansky district in the Khabarovsk Territory on October 28. The detectives found that the bulker was carrying 700-750 tonnes of gold-bearing ore. The deadweight of the bulker is 611 tonnes. The experts believed that the cargo could have shifted amid a heavy pitching in a stormy weather that resulted in the immediate capsizing and sinking of the bulk carrier. The Amurskaya emergency radio beacon gave the May Day signals. The tanker Novik was dispatched in the area, where the bulker was in distress, but did not find her.
For the last few days during the search operation about 8,000 square kilometers in the Sea of Okhotsk have been searched through from the airplane, the vessels have searched through 345 square kilometers, the ground search team has searched 149 kilometers on the coast in the Khabarovsk Territory. The crew of the bulker consisted of nine people, their fate is unclear.
The missing bulk carrier is registered at the port Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, the ship was built in 1973.