Cruise ship anchor photographed on the reef

[deeper thoughts]

Sickening

 

[flots am]

Wow, that's a lot of damage. So who gets hit with fines and penalties here? The cruise ship or the harbor pilot who directed the ship to drop anchor in that spot?

"The Carnival Magic cruise ship was mistakenly guided by Bodden Shipping Agency pilot boats to anchor 650 feet outside the designated public port anchorage, dropping its anchor on a previously untouched patch of coral reef. "

They need to nail Bodden for a complete restoration project.

I'd also be looking at any other places Bodden has directed ships to anchor.

While I'm quite eager to throw Bodden under the bus, the captain of the ship isn't blameless. There are at least two (probably more) high precision GPSs and and sonar on the ship and the captain knows exactly where every inch of the ship is. If the ship is anchoring somewhere he hasn't anchored in the past X years, he should have checked it out first.

flots

 

[billinwilliamston]

"The Carnival Magic cruise ship was mistakenly guided by Bodden Shipping Agency pilot boats to anchor 650 feet outside the designated public port anchorage, dropping its anchor on a previously untouched patch of coral reef. "

They need to nail Bodden for a complete restoration project.

I'd also be looking at any other places Bodden has directed ships to anchor.

While I'm quite eager to throw Bodden under the bus, the captain of the ship isn't blameless. There are at least two (probably more) high precision GPSs and and sonar on the ship and the captain knows exactly where every inch of the ship is. If the ship is anchoring somewhere he hasn't anchored in the past X years, he should have checked it out first.

flots

No one is going to pay a dime on this one. You may see Carnival "donate" a sum of money to help with the restoration, but that's about it.

From the article linked to earlier:

Under the Marine Conservation Law, it is an offense for boaters to damage any species of coral reef in Cayman waters by way of an anchor. At the moment, though, there are no regulations or restrictions in place in the Port Authority Law in terms of policing pilot boat captains in the George Town Port.

As a result, Department of Environment officials said it was unlikely that any sanctions or fines would be administered.

“The Marine Conservation Law makes it an offence for anyone to damage coral with an anchor and chain anywhere in Cayman waters but there are exemptions for the Port Anchorage,” said Gina Ebanks-Petrie, director of the Department of Environment.

 

[Lopez116]

http://www.cayman27.com.ky/2014/09/19/volunteer-driven-reef-restoration-effort-begins

Volunteer-driven reef restoration effort begins
Posted By Joe Avary and Kevin Watler

The all volunteer efforts to repair section of reef decimated by the Carnival Magic’s anchor and chain starts this weekend. More than 50 divers met to hear assessments from the Department of Environment (DOE) and discuss how to start the long, complicated, restoration process.
The DOE said it’s unlikely there will be any formal prosecution in last month’s cruise anchor incident.

Some local divers have experience in reef restoration. In 1996, a Maasdam cruise ship destroyed a section of Cheeseburger Reef.

Long time diver and conservationist Peter Milburn spearheaded the restoration project then. He told Cayman 27 with a lot of work, it’s possible to salvage 12,000 square feet of damaged reef.

“With a good crop of people, good groups, safety people working together, I think we can achieve a pretty good result from that reef. But it’s going to be a lot of work, it’s not going to be easy as the one we did back in 1996 I believe,” said Mr. Milburn.

The Cheeseburger Reef restoration took four months with paid crews working daily. The current effort is strictly volunteer and is expected to take up to a year or more. many dive centres on Grand Cayman are donating tanks and boats for the cleanup efforts.

Volunteer divers will get a first look at the damage site Saturday (20 September) morning and begin to implement the restoration strategies, which are still being formulated.

The volunteer effort has organized a facebook page to coordinate restoration efforts.

Cayman 27′s Joe Avary filed this report.

 

[tstormdiver]

Question is,... Why the hell a cruise ship is using an anchor??? I was on a cruise ship to GC about 9 yrs ago (that is actually how I took a resort course & got bitten by the diving bug). When we were in port, the ship used GPS & multidirectional motors (Azi Pod propulsion) to hold the ship's position within a few feet, without an anchor. I would guess most, if not all large cruise ships have been built or retro fitted with this propulsion/ navigation type system.

 

[releck97]

Question is,... Why the hell a cruise ship is using an anchor??? I was on a cruise ship to GC about 9 yrs ago (that is actually how I took a resort course & got bitten by the diving bug). When we were in port, the ship used GPS & multidirectional motors (Azi Pod propulsion) to hold the ship's position within a few feet, without an anchor. I would guess most, if not all large cruise ships have been built or retro fitted with this propulsion/ navigation type system.

Unfortunately, Carnival Magic has 2 fixed pitch propellers with 2 conventional shafts. Although azipod reliability has improved dramatically since first being introduced, many ships are not fitted with them.

 

[fire_diver]

Every cruise ship I have seen at GC has always been anchored. Why would a ship captain want to put undue wear and tear on a system that requires a drydock to repair if it breaks? Drop the anchor, cut your propulsion system and be done for then next 10 hours while in port.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

There are four approved anchorage sites in the George Town area. Many days Cayman has more than 4 cruise ships visiting. That leaves at least one ship to hold position using engines on those busy days.

 

[yardpro]

we have also anchored every time we were at GC.

 

[flots am]

Every cruise ship I have seen at GC has always been anchored. Why would a ship captain want to put undue wear and tear on a system that requires a drydock to repair if it breaks? Drop the anchor, cut your propulsion system and be done for then next 10 hours while in port.

The ships that have the capability and don't/can't dock, do this frequently, in deep water then tender the passengers in.

They can hold position within an astonishingly tight tolerance. It does cost fuel, but it's not a big factor, since fuel usage to maintain position is nearly insignificant compared to usage to create electricity for the ship and power the engines while actually traveling.

flots.