(USS Guardian) End of an Illegal Maneuver [View all]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/199771/end-of-an-illegal-maneuver/





End of an Illegal Maneuver
Die Tageszeitung, Germany
By Hilja Müller
Translated By Ron Argentati
15 March 2013
Edited by Gillian Palmer

A U.S. Navy minesweeper that ran aground on an environmentally protected coral reef off the coast off the Philippines is being dismantled. The crew will be granted immunity from prosecution.

Just last year, the Tubbataha Atoll was praised for the exemplary protection of its richly diverse marine life. Today, the UNESCO World Heritage site looks more like a gigantic ocean construction site. On January 17, the U.S. Navy minesweeper USS Guardian made unauthorized entry into the atoll's 130,000-hectare national park waters, where it promptly ran aground on a reef in the southernmost atoll.

~snip~

Experts hope that the complex operation will minimize further damage to the coral reef system. Early estimates say that 4,000 square meters of the reef have already been destroyed, but the total damage cannot be assessed until the rest of the ship has been entirely removed.

How the accident could happen in an age of satellite navigation and despite the radio warnings broadcast by the Tubbataha Rangers has yet to be explained. The excuses given thus far by the U.S. Navy leave something to be desired, namely that the navigation charts being used by the Guardian, that show the precise location of underwater hazards, contained errors.