The Edro III shipwreck in Pegeia
The Edro III ran aground off Pegeia in Paphos, on the 8th of September 2011, during its voyage from Limassol to Rhodes. The Edro III, is an 83-meter-long cargo ship, built in 1966 by Kaldnes Mekaniske Verksted at Tonsberg in Norway and registered at Freetown in Sierra Leone.
The Edro III set sail from Limassol to Rhodes on the night of the 7th of December 2011, carrying a cargo of plasterboard and a crew of nine sailors. Even though the weather conditions seemed good for this journey, everything soon changed, and the ship and crew found themselves in dangerous weather conditions. The Edro III ran ashore, just a few meters from the sea caves in Pegeia on the 8th of December. All crew members survived and were rescued by a local British military rescue helicopter. The vessel’s fuel was quickly removed from the tanks to eliminate the risk of any pollution to the sea area, but the Pegeia municipality was unable to move the shipwreck.
The Edro III now lies tilted at 12-degrees and is one of the most important sights of the marine region of Cyprus, protected and included in the Natura 2000 program. The shipwreck adds a dramatic twist to the breath-taking scenery of the sea caves and has become a popular destination for tourists and locals to visit to watch majestic sunsets!