Divers are gluing coral back together and removing unsalvageable pieces to deeper waters as they try to repair reef damage caused when the Navy cruiser USS Port Royal ran aground Feb. 5 off Honolulu International Airport's reef runway.

The state plans to submit a bill, called an admiralty claim, to the Navy for reimbursement of the cost to repair and clean up the area, said Deborah Ward, state Department of Land and Natural Resources spokeswoman. Ward said she did not have an estimate of the costs.

On another front, the Navy Times reported that it might cost tens of millions of dollars to repair the Port Royal, according to an internal Navy report detailing damage to the $1 billion ship.

Damage to the ship includes both drive shafts and support struts, instruments on the ship's underside, hatches on the forward and aft vertical launch cells, antennae and the wastewater and seawater ballast systems, which are clogged with sand and coral from the reef.

The ship, which had just come out of drydock two months ago after routine maintenance, will likely require months to repair the damage caused by the grounding and 3 1/2 days of rolling in the surf before it was pushed out to deeper water by tugboats.

Capt. W. Scott Gureck, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet, did not have any comment on the extent of the damage to the 9,600-ton vessel or the cost of the repairs.

"The damage assessment is ongoing," Gureck said.

Three teams of divers have been at the site of the grounding since Feb. 12, Ward said, surveying, photographing and re-attaching the live coral heads.

"It's been complicated by the wave action from the wind and the current," Ward said. "The Navy divers are assisting us with the gluing and removal of the chunks of coral out to deeper water."

But it will take another week or more for divers to survey the site and to assess the full extent of the scarring to the reef, she said.

In some instances, divers are re-attaching the coral with a quick-setting cement and hauling the larger pieces to deep water so they aren't tumbled by waves, causing further damage to the reef, Ward said.

The restoration methods are standard operating procedure, said Ruth Gates, an associate researcher with the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology at Coconut Island.

"It's an animal, a living organism," Gates said of the reef. "It grows centimeters per year. When we have a run aground, and large coral colonies are destroyed. It's a significant event in the lifetime of a coral. Coral is so important to our marine ecology. They're like the trees in a forest."

When the Navy first reported the ship had run aground off the reef runway, it said there was no damage to the reef. It wasn't until after the ship had been removed that the damage to the reef was discovered.

The Navy has temporarily removed from duty Capt. John Carroll, the guided missile cruiser's skipper.

The ship ran aground in 17 to 22 feet of water after completing its first day of sea trials. The usual path in and out of Pearl Harbor typically runs at a maximum depth of 42 feet. The "navigational draft" for the Port Royal is 33 feet, the Navy has said.