[Dargo]

Emergency services have switched to metered cooling of the outside of the freighter Fremantle Highway near the Wadden Islands. Earlier, cooling was constant. "Unnecessary water on board must be prevented. This endangers the stability of the ship," writes the Coast Guard. Whether the ship will be cooled is determined on a moment-by-moment basis. "The direction lies with the salvage team," says a Coast Guard spokesperson. "There are salvagers present who determine per moment whether cooling is done. The stability of the ship is decisive." Heat cameras monitor the ship's temperature. "A coastguard aircraft takes thermal images. With that, we take temperature measurements."

According to the German Environment Ministry, there are 1,600 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 200 tonnes of marine diesel on board the ship that ran into trouble yesterday. A spokesman for the Royal Dutch Rescue Society (KNRM) informs that crew members jumped from about 25 to 30 metres into the water from the ship yesterday. Meanwhile, the fire is raging on and smoke is still coming out of the ship, making it unsafe to board. The ship is now some 16 kilometres north of Terschelling as it drifts westwards due to the wind and currents. The vessel is being kept out of the shipping lanes with the help of a tug, allowing shipping traffic to pass at a safe distance. The vehicle is no longer completely level in the water, according to Rijkswaterstaat (Department of Waterways and Public Works).

Japanese shipping company K Line told German news agency DPA this morning that the burning cargo ship had about a thousand more cars on board than previously reported. It is 3783 cars instead of 2857 cars, according to the shipping company. However, the Coast Guard is still assuming 2857 cars. "That is the information we have received," he said. If it does turn out to be 3783, it won't make a big difference to the operation, according to the Coast Guard. "It's a complex situation anyway, whether it's about 2,800 or 3,800 cars." It may still take days to extinguish the fire, a Coast Guard spokesman said this morning on NOS Radio 1 News. To gather information, the Coast Guard is taking images from a plane. In addition, a salvage team is monitoring the situation from the tug. If fuel starts leaking from the ship, it will spread northwards and not towards the Wadden Islands, outgoing minister Harbers (Infrastructure and Water Management) wrote in a letter to the Lower House this morning. This is due to "the current wind and wave direction foreseen for the coming days". Rijkswaterstaat is in the area with an oil spill response vessel to intervene immediately as soon as it does.

The big fear is that the ship will capsize and sink. That could mean some of the cargo moving towards the Wadden Islands. "It is a world heritage site and that could be damaged if very strange, toxic products were to end up there," Ameland mayor Stoel said yesterday. The mayor again stressed the importance of paying attention to the safety of this kind of shipping at the Wadden area. "We have previously expressed concern about the route being sailed," he said. There is a northern and a southern route. Stoel and the other Wadden mayors would prefer to see the southern route disappear. "The further away from the Wadden Islands, the fewer the risks and the more time to intervene if something goes wrong."