A US Navy minesweeper was stuck on a coral reef in the Philippines for a second day on Friday, as the crew struggled to extract the ship and Philippine authorities tried to evaluate damage to a protected marine park.
The Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement that the crew of the USS Guardian was working to find out the best method of safely extracting the ship. Winds and waves were stronger on Friday and may make it more difficult to free the ship, Philippine officials said.
It had just completed a port call in Subic Bay, a former American naval base west of the Philippine capital, when it hit the reef Thursday in the Tubbataha National Marine Park, a World Heritage Site in the Sulu Sea, 640 kilometres southwest of Manila.
The ship was not listing or leaking oil but its bow struck the reef, said Angelique Songco, head of the government’s Protected Area Management Board, after flying over the ship in a Philippine Air Force plane. “[The ship] does not appear to be damaged.”
She said it was unclear how much of the reef was damaged. She said the government imposes a fine of about US$300 per square metre of damaged coral.
In 2005, the environmental group Greenpeace was fined almost US$7,000 after its flagship struck a reef in the same area.
