The Motor Vessel Tecam Sea is a bulk carrier built in 1984. The ship was built in Hitachi

Hitachi, Ltd.

is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Marunouchi 1-chome, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company is the parent of the Hitachi Group as part of the larger DKB Group companies...

 Innoshima, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and purchased by Sea Quality, a shipping company based in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. The ship was involved in a collision with the M/V Federal Fuji

MV Federal Fuji

The Motor Vessel Federal Fuji is a bulk carrier built in 1986, by Nippon Kokan in Shimizu, Japan. The ship was built for Viken Lakers, based in Bergen, Norway. The Federal Fuji was involved in a collision with the M/V Tecam Sea in the port of Sorel, Quebec on 27 April 2000...

 in the port of Sorel

Sorel-Tracy, Quebec

Sorel-Tracy is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada and the geographical end point of the Lake Champlain Valley at the confluence of the Richelieu River and the St. Lawrence River, on the western edge of Lac Saint-Pierre downstream and east of nearby Montreal. The population as of the Canada 2006...

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

 on 27 April 2000. The squat effect

Squat effect

The squat effect is the hydrodynamic phenomenon by which a vessel moving quickly through shallow water creates an area of lowered pressure that causes the ship to be closer to the seabed than would otherwise be expected. This phenomenon is caused when water that should normally flow under the hull...

 phenomenon is believed to be a factor in the collision.

The Tecam Sea, under Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

nian ownership, was involved in illegal oil-waste dumping off the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

coast on 8 Sept 2002, resulting in eight serious pollution charges. Due to improper handling of the case by authorities, the case was dismissed and charges were dropped.