A STRICKEN cargo ship which ran aground in an important marine wildlife haven off the North East coastline will not be moved until the weekend at the earliest.

The MV Danio, which became stranded off the Farne Islands on Saturday, will remain there until Sunday or into next week, the man leading the salvage operation confirmed yesterday.

There had been plans for a salvage attempt yesterday but these were cancelled due to the poor weather and sea conditions.

The 80m (87yd) long 1,800 tonne MV Danio was heading from Perth in Scotland to Antwerp in Belgium when it became caught on rocks in the Farne Islands, three miles off the Northumberland coast at 4.30am on Saturday.

The German-owned Antigua registered vessel, carrying timber, was not thought to be badly damaged and there were no reports of any fuel leak.

A tug boat was brought in to pull the vessel off the rocks but there was to be no salvage attempt until yesterday.

But yesterday afternoon, Hugh Shaw, the Secretary of State’s representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention, said: “We have no plans to do anything today. We were hoping to do something either this morning or at high water time but the weather conditions just are not favourable to even attempt it as such.

“We are looking towards the weekend. We had a meeting with the salvers this morning and they think there could be enough water to do it towards the weekend.

“From Sunday onwards, each day there is a bit more water to play with.

“We have got the resources here, we have got the equipment, we just need the appropriate weather and the tide. “

The tug boat was stood down yesterday but the lines for it will remain at Seahouses for when it is brought back.

The six-strong MV Danio crew remain on the vessel.

A spokesman for HM Coastguard last night said the Marine Accident Investigation Branch had been informed. Seahouses RNLI was deployed in the early hours of Saturday and crew members were on standby for 20 hours, relieved for a period by their colleagues from Berwick, before eventually being stood down.

Spokesman Ian Clayton said the grounded ship is proving “an added tourist attraction at the Farnes”.

“They are here in their hordes with their binoculars and cameras,” he said.

The islands are internationally known for the thousands of puffins which live there, as well as 6,000 grey seals and more than 20 bird species that breed there.

The ship is near Longstone Lighthouse, close to where heroine Grace Darling and her lighthouse keeper father carried out a famous rescue from the steamship Forfarshire in 1838.