Vessel issued Mayday after waves crashed through bridge
The ANUVA has been targeted by Greenpeace in 2004, now the sea has a go!...



A fishing vessel which activated its distress systems after a wave crashed through the bridge window in gale force weather managed to change course and made its way towards the Scottish mainland, escorted by two vessels.

The vessel Anuva is Lithuanian registered and Spanish owned. It was 262 miles from the Butt of Lewis at the time of the incident.

Stornoway Coastguard was called by the Norwegian Coastguard at 5.15 am Saturday morning to report that they had received an Inmarsat C distress alert from the vessel. A mayday message was also broadcast by the ship and was intercepted by the UK Coastguard and relayed for the attention of all shipping. Stornoway Coastguard was also able to confirm, via Falmouth Coastguard, that the vessel was still afloat using satellite communications and the Spanish Coastguard.

Two other vessels, Villa Nores and Ivan Nores responded to the mayday relay and went to the aid of the ship. Villa Nores told the Coastguard that there was a significant amount of water on board Anuva, but that the vessel was not in imminent danger of sinking. The crew was therefore not abandoning ship. Anuva was pumped dry, the windows boarded up and it altered course to proceed east, escorted by the two other vessels.

Martin Collins, Stornoway Coastguard Watch Manager said:
"We were very concerned for the safety of the crew at the start of the incident. There was strong gale force weather from the west with a 5 metre swell, and due to their distance from land it would have been very difficult to get rescue resources to them swiftly should the situation have taken a turn for the worst. Fortunately, a number of other ships were fairly close by and two of them were able to assist."

Historical note: Activists from the Greenpeace vessel MV Esperanza boarded the ANUVA in 2004  to protest deep sea destruction and to call for a moratorium on high sea bottom trawling