Tubbataha board meets on best method to remove stranded USS Guardian

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 22): Tubbataha board meets on best method to remove stranded USS Guardian

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in Palawan has been tasked to set up containment booms around the USS Guardian for any possible oil leak as the U.S. minesweeper remained stuck stranded at the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park.

Rear Adm. Rodolfo D. Isorena, commandant of the PCG, said this in a meeting of the Tubbataha Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) Tuesday morning. He said early measures must be undertaken against anything that might possibly happen, particularly now that the U.S. Navy minesweeper has turned 90 degrees and is completely on top of the corals on the South Atoll.

A spokesman of the U.S. Navy said if an oil spill would occur, it would not endanger Tubbataha because the USS Guardian uses a type of fuel that evaporates after spillage at sea.

Isorena is in Palawan with Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) Undersecretary Eduardo Oba Jr. to take charge of the situation. Isorena said if the weather settles in the following days from now, it just might take a week to lift the USS Guardian from the South Atoll in Tubbahata. The possibility of pulling off the minesweeper vessel off the atoll has been ruled out as the PCG said the method might just incur more damages on the corals.

The U.S. Navy has allegedly informed that it will be bringing to Palawan in Tubbataha the USNS Salvor (T-ARS-52), a Safeguard class rescue and salvage ship that serves as an element of the Combat Logistics Support Force that provides rescue and salvage services to the U.S.’ navy fleets at sea. USNS Salvor is reportedly “designed to perform combat salvage, lifting, towing, off-ship firefighting, manned diving operations, and emergency repairs to stranded or disabled vessels.”

Strong winds remain in the Sulu Sea, making it difficult for any rescue and salvage efforts, and might also place other rescue vessels in danger. Another difficulty the salvage team is facing is communications. Isorena said signal is often overwhelmed by statics even if they are already using satellite phones.

Estimates of destroyed corals in the 10-hectare South Atoll remain at 10 square meters. But Isorena said this might have already been enlarged after robust winds and waves hoisted the ship 90 degrees on the said atoll.

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