Posted on 01/28/2016 10:52:46 PM PST by Citizen Zed
A massive luxury yacht owned by Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen destroyed most of a protected coral reef during a visit to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean earlier this month, media reported.
An anchor chain from the vessel damaged nearly 14,000 square feet (1,300 square meters), or about 80 percent, of reef near two scuba diving sites in the West Bay, the islands' environment department said, according to the Cayman News Service.
Allen's Seattle-based Vulcan Inc organization, which manages his fortune, said on Wednesday that the M/V Tatoosh was moored on Jan. 14 in a "position explicitly directed" by the local port authority and that his team was cooperating with the investigation.
"When its crew was alerted by a diver that her anchor chain may have impacted coral in the area, the crew promptly, and on their own accord, relocated their position to ensure the reef was protected," Vulcan said.
The damage to the coral, which is vital for marine life, comes five months after the billionaire philanthropist announced support for research to stabilise and restore coral reefs.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
Exactly my thought.
10 foot damage swath, a quarter mile in length.
One problem with that claim - the GPS on the bridge would immediately notify the officer on duty that the ship was moving.
The layout of harbor, depth, various inner reefs, outcropings, many thing come into play. One time on med cruise two fun loving shipmates “borrowed” a slow leaky rowboat to return to our ship anchored in an Italian harbor, the boat sank. It cost our ship $5,000.00 to replace same rowboat. The rich American factor.
OK. That helps, but its not adding up to 14,000 square feet. However, if the chain were lain across a reef and measuring all external surface area of said reef, I can start to imagine how one could milk this to 14,000 square feet. I’m still guessing the actual square footage of damage is about a magnitude lower, and that this is number that will be reported for fining the company than runs Paul Allen’s boat.
A=πr2
Solving for r, the circle (boat plus anchor chain) need only be 66.8' long to sweep an area of 14,000 sq. ft.
See post 22.
Perfect. That is exactly what I wanted to see. I’m guessing that is what the port authority assumed too rather than tearing a big swath across the harbor.
Right. I’m all squared away and on board now. Thanks for the help.
Well, in order to restore, one must first destroy. Step one accomplished!
Oh, the amusing irony. When I’ve seen Allen in the news before, he’s always tried to play himself up as an Environmentalist. He launched something last year to study coral reefs in an effort to build up his environmental credibility. His giant yacht destroying coral reefs is going to make that a little, uh, awkward.
Just turn it off and turn it back on.
Microsoft needs more H-1B’s because domestic tech help is soooo expensive.
Yacht?
Give her a gun and some VLS cells, and she’s a Frigate.
When one just won’t do!
Let’s not get our panties in a wad about this accident. The government of Grand Cayman has recently decided to deliberately destroy a reef to put in a deep water cruise ship pier. But of course that deliberate damage will be done after filing all the appropriate “impact studies” as well as touching all the other bases required by the enviro-whackos.
No. The Blue one is Tatoosh. Saw it in Bonaire last year when I was diving there. They were moored at the town pier and we got a good look at it until a Dutch Navy frigate pulled in and Paul Allen’s toy had to displace to the harbor entrance and ride at anchor.
Compensating.
There is a known technology that radically increases the growth of coral in coral shallow water, even if there is nothing there but sand.
It was discovered that a small electrical current passing through cable is very attractive to coral microorganisms that latch on to the cable and reproduce much faster than normal.
So an idea was proposed to lay a large grid of cable just offshore in a sandy tidewater area, with two sections of cable going ashore where they are attached to a resistor and a car battery. So little electricity is used that a single charged battery will last most of a month before being replaced and recharged.
Sure enough, within a year or two, the grid was mostly covered with coral, in a process much faster than naturally. And with the coral came a surfeit of life.
So a good question is why hasn’t this technology appeared in all sorts of places prone to coral but currently without it?
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