Preventing pollution in the sea surrounding the sunken Costa Concordia will be a race against time, but the ship could be sailing again in the future with a lot of hard work and a lot of money, said a maritime expert.

Malcolm Latarche, editor of IHS Fairplay Solutions, added that although the ship’s 17 tanks, which contain 500,000 gallons of fuel, are in protected locations, there may be some small spillage.

This is because of the current position of the cruise liner.

He also said that while holidaymakers may not be rushing to book a cabin on the luxury ship, it is possible that Concordia could be repaired and back in service some time in 2013.

“It would take an awful lot of work and a lot of money,” he said.

“It would be a year at least before it would be in a serviceable condition and the question is would anybody really want to go on it?

“Would you go on a ship that has been in that condition? Would you think it was unlucky or what? It’ll always be a hard sell to get people to go on it, that’s my opinion.”

Despite people’s possible reservations though, it is a job that could be done.

“They’d take the big rock out of the gash. They would then manufacture a section to fit on to the hole – a steel patch that would be lifted on and welded in place.

“Once that’s done they’d need to make the ship’s bottom water-tight and then begin pumping out the water from inside and gradually it would float.”

Mr Latarche said that pollution was something the shipping industry dreaded the most.

“It is an issue, it’s always an issue in these cases,” he said. “It’s what we in the industry hate to see because of the pollution aspect of oil.

“When you see oil tankers go aground, more than anything else, it puts public opinion against the shipping industry.”

However, he did add that although preventing pollution from a spillage would be hard work and not the easiest job in the world, it would not be rocket science.

The tragedy has turned into an environmental crisis as rough seas battering the stricken mega-ship raised fears that fuel might leak into pristine waters off Tuscany that are part of a protected sanctuary for dolphins, porpoises and whales.

Waters that had remained calm for the first days of the rescue turned choppy on Monday, shifting the wreckage and raising fears that any further movement could cause some of the 500,000 gallons of fuel on board to leak into the waters off Giglio.

They are popular with scuba divers and form part of the protected Tuscan archipelago.

Italy’s Environmental Minister raised the alarm about a potential environmental catastrophe.

“At the moment there haven’t been any fuel leaks, but we have to intervene quickly,” Corrado Clini, told RAI state radio.

Even before the accident there had been mounting calls from environmentalists to restrict passage of large ships in the area.

Costa Crociere has enlisted one of the world’s leading salvagers, Smit of Rotterdam, Netherlands, to handle the removal of the cruise liner and extract the fuel safely.

Divers blast four holes in the ship

Italian navy divers have set off explosives to create four small openings in the hull of the Costa Concordia to speed up the search for the missing passengers and crew.

Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero said the micro-charges created openings to allow divers to enter the stricken ship easily. The holes were made both above and below the water level.

Television footage showed them to be less than two metres in diameter.

The rescuers were racing against time, Mr Busonero said.

The cruise liner tragedy, in which six people have been confirmed dead, has turned into a potential environmental crisis, as rough seas battering the stricken ship raised fears that fuel might leak into pristine the waters around Giglio island.

The Italian operator of the Costa Concordia has accused the ship’s jailed captain, Francesco Schettino, of causing the accident, saying he made an “unapproved, unauthorised manoeuvre” to divert the vessel from its programmed course.

Earlier, authorities had said 16 people were missing. But Italian coastguard official Marco Brusco said on Monday night that 25 passengers and four crew members were unaccounted for three days after the ship struck a reef and capsized.

He did not explain the increase, but indicated that the missing included 10 Germans and two Americans.

Mr Brusco said there was still a glimmer of hope that there could be survivors in parts of the vast cruise liner which have yet to be searched.