Salvager walking away from removal of grounded ship

MV Miner ran aground off Scatarie Island, N.S., a provincially designated wilderness management area, on Sept. 20, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

An on-again, off-again plan to salvage a shipwreck off the coast of Scaterie Island, N.S. is off-again. This time it appears to be for good.

A deadline imposed by the salvager for the lifting of a safety-related stop work order on the MV Miner has passed and reaction from the Cape Breton community was swift.

Fishermen in the nearest port to the wreck thought the offseason might include lucrative work shuttling supplies and personnel to and from the site.

But according to fishermen Ken Wadden, those hopes have long since been dashed.

“I’m glad to say that he is out of it, gone.”

Wadden believes the salvager had little idea of the regulatory and logistical hurtles of dismantling the huge derelict freighter. But he thinks another company will tackle the project.

“There is lots of salvagers out there that will be more willing to come in and do it. And do it properly.”

Fishermen’s Group representative Josephine Kennedy finds the scenario almost comical.

“It’s just been one thing after another. It’s going to make a great comedy book when someone sits down to write it.”

Kennedy wants Ottawa to step in and bankroll whatever it takes to scrap the eyesore.

“I think the pressure should be put on the federal government to get that ship out of there.”

No coastal community has more at stake in the fate of the shipwreck than Main-a-Dieu.

Its lobster and scallop fleet fish nearby and the village’s development association had worked closely with the salvager.

“There is a general feeling of frustration and disappointment in the community,” says Amanda McDougall of the Village Development Association.

The association wants a joint government effort in the wake of the failed salvage.

“Who is going to take responsibility now?” questions McDougall. “Will the federal government be working with the provincial government to find some sort of solution? It’s just a lot of questions that are up in the air.”

A question no one can answer is whether the ship can survive the battering of a second winter without breaking up and becoming unsalvageable.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Randy MacDonald