A ship registered in Malta was caught out dumping something at sea in the middle of an international sea sanctuary.

The ship was the containership Toscana and it was noticed first on 9 July some 10 miles north of the Marciana Marina harbour on the island of Elba by the crew of the German ship MS Thales. The area is an international sea sanctuary for whales under the jurisdiction of France, Italy and Monaco. The German ship is allied to the international organisation GreenOcean and the Italian Legambiente monitoring the extent of plastic found in the sea. The photos taken from the German ship show that the cranes on board the Toscana were working in open sea.

That something fishy was going on is also apparent from what the German crew call attempts to ram them by the Toscana.

In a report sent to Legambiente, the German crew said that although the Toscana was not moving in the sea, its anchor was not down nor did it seem disabled. When examined by means of binoculars, the crew on board the Toscana were noticed jettisoning 16ft containers into the sea.

But as soon as the German ship changed route so as to observe better, the crew on board the Toscana noticed the manoeuvre and with binoculars examined the German ship. Then the Toscana began moving in a way that would have brought her in collision with the German ship. Twice the German ship had to change direction and twice the Toscana changed its direction, as if it was intent on ramming it. It was only through the ability of the German crew that the collision did not take place. As the two ships were passing each other with a very short distance between them, the German crew noticed that one of the cranes was still not returned to the upright position, possibly to continue to jettison more containers once the German ship was out of sight.