Navy Ship Hits Reef.
We saw this headline when a navy submarine hit the reef off Ft. Lauderdale, Florida several years ago. Now we have a new ship and a different reef. A Navy warship, the AEGIS cruiser USS Port Royal (see official Navy picture above) was grounded a half-mile off Honolulu for four days. It had been stuck in coral reef, not rock and sand as military officials previously reported.
"The Pacific Fleet and the state of Hawaii said in a joint statement Thursday that they were assessing the extent of damage to the reef. State land department chairwoman Laura Thielen says surveys show the ship had grounded in coral reef. She says divers from the state and Navy are working to ensure no further damage occurs. The finding is the second embarrassing revelation for the Navy. It had failed to notify the state that the ship had discharged 7,000 gallons of wastewater when it was grounded."
It's fascinating that no one has asked the question how a ship such as this with paper and electronic charts, a trained crew, and every piece of electronic gear available to any sailor can hit a well charted reef.
In any case, divers are now trying to remove all the broken pieces of the reef which, when tossed around by waves pose a constant threat to the living reef.
Again it sounds like Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where an "artificial reef" of rubber tires was lain out years ago. the cables rusted and broke and the tires became "reef smashers", one of the most efficient machines to destroy what's left of that old reef! The Navy and enviro groups finally have started to "round up" all the rouge tires and get them off the bottom.
Ah human beings. Ya gotta hate em if you are a reef!
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