Hawaii to ask Navy to pay for reef repair

Hawaii to ask Navy to pay for reef repair
Staff report
Posted : Monday Mar 2, 2009 17:13:59 EST

The state of Hawaii plans to ask the Navy to reimburse it for the cost of repairing the coral reef damaged when the cruiser Port Royal ran aground Feb. 5.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources announced Friday it will know the approximate cost of the repair job after it finishes an assessment of how much reef was damaged; how much has already been repaired by state and Navy divers; and how much work remains.

The state’s divers will need about another week to finish inspecting the reef, according to the announcement. They and Navy divers from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 have been measuring and photographing the reef since the Port Royal struck it.

The divers also have been gluing coral back to the reef with quick-setting cement and pulling off “non-salvageable pieces” and dropping them in deeper water, according to the state announcement. “If not done,” it said, non-salvageable pieces “may cause secondary damage to the surrounding coral reef during heavy swells.”

Gluing broken coral pieces back onto a main reef is a common rescue process for reefs that have been damaged by groundings, said Lisa DiPinto, an injury assessment coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. If the live pieces can be replaced on the main reef quickly enough, they have a good chance of staying alive.


Rest of article at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/03/navy_reef_claim_030209w/%2e