honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, July 8, 2005

Team begins survey of grounded ship

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Staff Writer

spacer

A Coast Guard assessment team was aboard the grounded vessel Casitas yesterday as it lay on the northern reef of Pearl and Hermes Atoll.

The Casitas went aground at 2 a.m. Saturday carrying a crew of seven and a team of 16 divers who were planning to conduct a four-month effort to remove marine debris from the reefs of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. All aboard made it off the vessel safely and used small boats to cross the atoll to a monk-seal research camp. They were taken to Midway Atoll and returned to Honolulu early Wednesday.

No preliminary results were made available since Coast Guard Strike Force Team Pacific started its survey of the wreck site on Wednesday. A Coast Guard overflight showed no sign of the oil slick that had been visible for the first two days after the 145-foot ship went aground.

The assessment team is working from the NOAA ship Oscar Elton Sette but will transfer today to the Honolulu-based Coast Guard cutter Walnut, which was diverted from work on navigation aids in American Samoa. The Walnut will help get the Casitas off the reef and minimize possible contamination from the estimated 33,000 gallons of fuel aboard the Casitas.

The Walnut may be capable of pumping fuel off the Casitas, according to the multiagency Unified Command that is overseeing the recovery.

The owners of the Casitas, Fishing Vessel Northwind Inc., have hired a dive company to make its own assessment of the condition of the hull today.

A Honolulu-based private oil-spill-recovery vessel, Quest, also is on its way to Pearl and Hermes.

The Unified Command includes the state Department of Health and Department of Land and Natural Resources, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior, and the owners of the Casitas.