Removal of shipwrecks on French side won’t start before March 2021

Within the territorial cooperation program, known as the  “Simpson Bay Lagoon” Project, pertaining to cross-border protection and management and following the cancellation of our previous public contract by the State for the collection of shipwrecks, we were able to include in the program of cooperation the complete management of shipwrecks in the lagoon, said president Gibbs by a pressbriefing Thursday afternoon.

The new public procurement procedure should be ready to be launched in July 2020 and the Collectivité will proceed firstly on removing the wrecks that are considered most dangerous.

“However, taking into account the administrative deadlines which will result from this procedure (around 3 months) and the deadline for the winning company to be registered by the Préfecture services in compliance with environmental procedures and requirements (around 5 months), the first wrecks will be removed as early as March 2021”, said Daniel Gibbs.