Does this seem a little strange? The boat is floating around on top of the reef, but cannot be dragged off? Is this a decision driven by some sort of environmentalist idiocy?
Wooden/fiberglass hull doesn’t stand up well against coral. Would certainly sink if they pulled it off.
It is stuck on a UNESCO World Heritage Site, of all places.
I haven't seen anything that says it outright, but apparantly the reef is a UN "World Heritage Site" or something like that, a crane could not be used to lift it off because of fears of damaging the reef, and the Navy had to call in a tug from Malaysia to clean up some spilled diesel - so YES, I imagine the Navy Brass had to go into politically-correct environmental mode for this.
The boat is floating around on top of the reef,
and
New found boyancy after fuel removal - - -
So they fill it back up with seawater....