The officials, including Thanet Mannoy, Director of Marine and Coastal Resource Centre 5 and Chaimonkol Yammaroonpattana from the Phuket Marine Biological centre were hoping to get closer to the vessel itself, however, they were unable to due to bad weather conditions.
Officials said that they found that five of the containers from the ship are still in good condition and have not been damaged. However, about two kilo away were fragments of broken containers, styrofoam and seafood packaging were found floating in the sea. The smell from the area they described as foul.
Mr Thanet said, "We came to this area today to see if oil is leaking from the ship, but we found nothing.
“Some of the containers from the ship are floating, while others have sunk.
“We know from past surveys that this area where the boat has sunk has a lot of coral and artificial coral but we could not get close to the site due to the waves. We will have to wait for the waves and wind to calm then try again."
"We have found pieces of broken styrofoam and plastic wrappers from the seafood products stored in the containers and this is now our main concern. We are afraid that marine animals such as turtles or dolphins may think that these items can be eaten.
“Today we have managed to retrieve some of this debris but we will have to come back with more help when the weather permits."
The cargo ship Sinaran Andaman, registered in Phnom Penh, struck rocks off Koh Hei on Wednesday began taking on water and sank . All ten crew members were rescued the same day. (See stories here and here)