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 ...
Oopsie!
It’s the Anchor Baby!
He has a house in Kona, Big Island of Hawaii, and frequently we see that massive ship anchored in Kailua Bay. His home is just onshore.
14,000 sq. ft. How wide could the anchor swath be - say 10 feet max for easy division means they dragged it for 1,400 feet (almost 5 football fields long). I have know idea on those mega yachts. I suppose so. If they were guided by the local authorities I guess they are covered. Perhaps the locals are “meh - that isn’t even a real reef it’s so small”
But yeah - the mega yacht and heliocopters burning tons of fuel and some anchor damage doesn’t look good for a greenie.
Only two helicopters?
Pfffft!
It can be a bother keeping track of them all sometimes...
If you want to catch big fish you use big bait...the bigger the boat, the bigger the bait you can use. Depth charges come to mind with this little rowboat.
Maybe the anchor is controlled by Windows software. ;-)
You never want to walk more than 150ft to your copter.
He likes to stink up Gustavia harbor in St. Barth’s every year...He and Ellison have a competition each year to see who can display more douchedom.
Nice shootin’, Tech!
When a ship is anchored, the spot to drop anchor is choosen so as to back the ship away from the anchor and allow the ship to “swing” on the anchor with the incoming and outgoing tides. In other words, anchored, still moving a bit, grinding coral under the chain.
Oh crap - that’s right they mentioned the chain. Thanks! I can easily see that happening now. My old man was in the navy. We had a 17.5-foot runabout. He had a pretty heavy anchor on it with the triangular blades - I’m guessing it was about 2’ by 2.5’ in size. And 6 to 8 feet of chain on it (to weight it down so it would stay seated iirc.) I always thought that was overkill as a kid! (That and the 10-inch diameter lighted compass he put on the console!)
exnavy >>When a ship is anchored, the spot to drop anchor is choosen so as to back the
exnavy >>ship away from the anchor and allow the ship to “swing†on the anchor with the
exnavy >>incoming and outgoing tides. In other words, anchored, still moving a bit,
exnavy >>grinding coral under the chain.
Could you expand on that explanation more? I can imagine the harbor being maybe 50 feet deep. How do you anchor a boat with a perhaps a 5 ton anchor and 150 feet of chain and come up with 14,000 sq feet of “destruction” caused by it? The math and common sense I’m applying to this just aren’t adding up.
Picture the anchor on the bottom, maybe 20 to 30 feet of chain in the horizontal plane, than a long sweeping curve to the hauser where the chain exits the ship. Damage would be dependant on depth of harbor deeper requires more chain out. The topography of the harbor bottom would also play into the circumstance.
Not one but two helicopters.
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