Overnight the Oil Response Team was called upon to investigate and clean a pool of hydrocarbons seen floating toward the aft end of the midship area of Costa Concordia. It was cleaned by deploying absorbent booms. Once the pool was absorbed, the absorbent booms were replaced, but no more of the substance has been spotted.
The salvage operations center says no damage was found to the structure or the hot tap flanges. The hot tap flanges were drilled into the fuel tanks during the initial phase of the salvage to facilitate the draining of the fuel. Apparently the source of the hydrocarbons has not yet been determined.
The operations center reports that as of midnight local time, about 6.5 meters of the ship has emerged from underwater. There are still six starboard sponsons to be lowered into their final positions which will raise the ship further. The operations center says that once they are fully lowered, Decks 4 and 3 will emerge rapidly.
