For the past year and a half, its green deck and rust-stained red hull, torn open by the waves, have blended with the black of the volcano, the blue of the Indian Ocean and the white of the foam. With its bow mounted on the lava flow of 2007, the Tresta-Star is now part of the scenery of Réunion's "wild south." Suffering from repeated engine failures, the tanker, which was refueling other vessels at Port-Louis harbor in Mauritius, struck the Réunion coast on the night of February 3, 2022.

Out of control and buffeted by the violent gusts of wind and heavy swell generated by cyclone Batsirai, the 74-meter vessel belonging to an Indian company drifted from Mauritius, 231 kilometers east of Réunion. Fortunately, its tanks were empty. Its crew, 11 people from India and Bangladesh, survived. The sailors were evacuated under extreme conditions.

Curious onlookers no longer come to see this beached wreck, which remains a novel medium for graffiti artists and a shooting location for music videos, despite the dangers of the site. The July 2 report by the Marine Incidents Investigation Bureau (BEA-mer) on the causes of the shipwreck was a reminder that the vessel remains anchored indefinitely on the coast of the national park classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Olivier Rivière, mayor of Saint-Philippe, the commune where the boat ran aground, is once again calling for it to be dismantled. "I can't accept that this wreck should just sit there," said Rivière. "A solution must be found to restore the site."

"I think that if this wreck had been in Saint-Tropez or Brittany, the reaction would have been different. A solution would have been found much more quickly," said Ruth Dijoux, the head of the local chapter of the environmentalist party Génération Ecologie.

Whether it be the government, shipowner, insurer or local authorities, all imagined that the Tresta-Star would quickly disappear from the landscape, breaking in two under the huge blows of the swell, before sinking. Although not stable, the boat remains in this precarious position, with gaping holes in the hull.

In December 2022, the prefect of Réunion, Jérôme Filippini, announced that the French government would no longer require dismantling operations. Since March 2022, various options – by sea, air and land – had been studied. An initial appraisal was carried out by Dutch insurer MS Amlin. This was followed by a second assessment requested by the French government. "Each time, the difficulties seem insurmountable. It's unreasonable to undertake such work," stated Jérôme Lafon, the French government's assistant director for Indian Ocean affairs. These operations, costing a minimum of €15 million, would prove perilous for the technicians involved. The swell at this point on the Réunion coast would make the work of a crane boat difficult. Another unknowable factor is that the ship could break up at any moment. For this reason, the site has been closed to the public. "It's reckless to get on this boat," stressed Lafon.

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