Bulk Carrier Hard Aground at Popular Dive Site in Philippines
The Philippine Coast Guards says {that a} Panama-flagged bulk service has broken a whole bunch of meters of coral reef off Cebu after operating aground on Monday.
The PCG confirmed Tuesday that the MV Belle Rose, a 183-meter bulk service, ran aground June 13 at about 3 a.m. on Monad Shoal, a well-known diving web site referred to as one of many solely locations on earth the place you possibly can constantly spot thresher sharks within the wild.
The Coast Guard mentioned {that a} hull inspection revealed that the vessel’s hull is totally resting on the seabed, inflicting injury to an estimated 483 meters of coral reef.
So far there have been no indicators that any oil has been launched into the atmosphere.
The Coast Guard mentioned the ship was loaded with 48,000 tons of cement powder when it ran aground, however as of Tuesday the cargo had been transferred to a sister ship of the Belle Rose.
Salvage operations to refloat the vessel had been persevering with as of Tuesday.
The location of the grounding is roughly 4 nautical miles southeast of Malapascua Island in Daanbantayan, Cebu.
The 50,472 DWT Belle Rose was in-built 2010.
According to AIS knowledge, the ship was crusing from Nantong, China and attributable to arrive in Cebu Monday morning.
Diving web sites say that the Monad Shoal attracts divers from everywhere in the world, and is commonly crowded particularly round dawn. It sits on the sting of a steep 200 meter drop off and ranges in depth from 20 to 27 meters.