A Smit Salvage team headed by salvage expert Captain Nick Sloane was en route from Richard's Bay to Cape St Lucia on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast on Saturday to determine if a grounded Italian Ro-Ro (roll-on-roll-off) vessel will break up.
Attempts to board the ship on Friday were hampered by high deck temperatures and clouds of noxious carbon monoxide gas. The team would be equipped with specialised high-temperature suits and breathing apparatuses, Smit Salvage said in a statement.
The vessel, abandoned by its crew after an engine room fire blazed out of control on Tuesday, ran aground near the protected wetland on Thursday.
At midday on Saturday environmental affairs and tourism officials were off-loading specialised equipment ahead of a major clean-up operation to begin at 1pm.
Disaster management official Sipho Magwaza said officials were preparing to close off the environmentally sensitive Umfolozi river mouth and St Lucia estuary with sandbags to prevent the spread of a one-kilometre wide oil slick which leaked from the grounded vessel's ruptured tanks on Friday.
"The wind is calmer today and the threat of the slick spreading is less likely," he said.
Had Friday's gale force winds continued into Saturday the pristine area could have faced an environmental calamity, particularly because the vessel was carrying highly toxic class three hazardous materials.
Members of the public have been warned to avoid the area as reports of barrels containing lethal chemicals such as acetone and phenol were believed to have fallen off the vessel.
Phenol can cause paralysis, convulsions and in extreme cases, death. - Sapa