More images at link.
Posted on 03/02/2013 1:29:18 PM PST by GATOR NAVY
MANILA – As weather condition seems to be fine near Tubbataha Reef, salvaging operation for the ill-fated USS Guardian that ran aground last month along the portion of the UNESCO World Heritage continues as the team already starting to prepare for level 2 section lifting.
Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Palawan district commander and chief of Task Force Tubbataha said that the operations currently on going for the clearing of equipments below weather deck as well as the removal of sonar winch at the bow while the team is already done with lifting of the funnel section.
He added that before the salvaging team will proceed with level-2 section lifting, they will first lift the mast section as well as relocating the reference beacons of JASCON-25 and the transfer of recovered items from USS Guardian to M/Tug Archon Tide.
Vessels currently present along the salvaging site includes JASCON-25, SMIT Borneo crane barge, USNS Salvor, USNS Safeguard, USNS Wally Schirra, M/Tug Archon Tide, M/Tug Intrepid, M/Tug Trabajador-1 and Barge S-7000 of the Malayan Towage and PCG vessel BRP-Pampanga.
Evangelista also assured the public that the salvaging team continues the clearing of loose materials in the USS Guardian to prevent it from further damaging the reef.
via Philippine Coast Guard
More images at link.
Talk about a great example of Obama administration policies: Destroy a perfectly fine, $250 million dollar US Navy vessel to save a foreign coral reef.
Wonder how many furloughed DoD employees this could have paid for...?
I remember a TV documentary years ago about Filipino fishermen using dynamite in the coral reefs for big fish hauls.
Bingo. Imagine the failures we’d have in war due to ‘Mother Earth’ concerns under 0bama. We’ll all be dead but at least the fish will be happy.
Gadzooks! The Defense sequester cuts are just... 
as Obama said would happen!
This shows me that the NGOs have finally taken over completely.
Actually the ship is probably beyond saving. She was wooden hulled and early reports were that her keel was broken in the initial grounding. Now she’s been beating on the reef for weeks. Not much hope of refloating it, I think.
And a misplaced reef at that.
She is a total loss. The Navy even saved dry food stores from her.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Guardian_%28MCM-5%29
bummer.. hugh flotation bags won’t do it?
how about a bunch of Navy porpoises push all together?
No? damn.
now they know how the Concordia captain feeels. ‘shifting’ bottom. ;-]
It was destroyed by hitting the reef and then being pounded by heavy seas, long before they began cutting it up. It has a wooden hull.
The assertion that it could have just been pulled off the reef and been "perfectly fine" if it wasn't for concern for damaging the reef is false.
Will the 0 administration promote the skipper?
I fear that someday soon we will need every ship we can lay hold of in the coming world war. All the welfare/Healthcare/giveways/ will be stripped away as the enemy comes to the gates and this time we may well not win—and Hawaii/Alaska will be seceded to the victors. Some good may come of it—they may blast away San Francisco and Oakland.
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