Falmouth Coastguard was alerted to a distressed French fishing vessel at 00:21a.m. on 27 February 2001, which had began to leak diesel from its fuel tank, half a mile south of The Lizard.

The 21-metre fishing vessel, carrying ten tonnes of diesel, had ceased fishing, when she ran into difficulties. Falmouth Coastguard immediately began to co-ordinate assistance for the French vessel, despite being unable to communicate directly with the 5 French speaking crew.

Instead Falmouth Coastguard has been communicating with the French crewmen via the Dutch salvage tug 'Torax', which had been in Mounts Bay in between The Lizard and Lands End.

The tug 'Torax' is now on scene and will attempt to transfer salvage pumps. In the meantime Falmouth Coastguard also requested the launch of the RNLI Lifeboat from Lizard and the Royal Navy Sea King Helicopter based at Culdrose, both of which are now on scene and have deployed a Coastguard salvage pump, which is operating and keeping the vessel afloat. The Emergency Towing Vessel 'Far Sky' has also been tasked and is heading directly to the scene.

Two crew have now been taken off the French fishing vessel and it is expected that a salvage team from 'Torax' will soon join the three remaining crewmen. A strong smell of diesel has been reported and it is believed that it is likely that the fishing vessel has a ruptured fuel tank, although the cause of this has yet to be established.

Simon Rabett, Watch Manager at Falmouth Coastguard said, "Falmouth Coastguard and officials at the MCA will be monitoring salvage and pollution response throughout the night. We expect the ETV 'Far Sky’ on scene in the next few minutes."