Germany, she had about of oil on board. She expended some of the fuel en route to Norway, and some was lost in the sinking, but she was constantly leaking oil. In 1991 the leakage rate increased to per day, threatening the environment. The Norwegian government therefore decided to remove as much oil as possible from the wreck. In October 1994 the company Rockwater AS, together with deep sea divers, drilled holes in 133 fuel tanks and removed of oil; 47 fuel bunkers were unreachable and may still contain oil. After being run through a cleaning process, the oil was sold. The oil extraction operation provided an opportunity to recover one of Blüchers two Arado 196 aircraft. The plane was raised on 9 November 1994 and is currently at the Flyhistorisk Museum, Sola aviation museum near Stavanger. The shipwreck was protected as a war memorial on 16 June 2016, but also protected by law by the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage for those who actually have their burial at the bottom of the fjord. The intention was to protect the ship from looters. Footnotes Notes Citations References Further reading Admiral Hipper-class cruisers Ships built in Kiel 1937 ships World War II cruisers of Germany World War II shipwrecks in the North Sea Maritime incidents in April 1940 Ships sunk by coastal artillery Shipwrecks of Norway Naval magazine explosions