Gen San Chris
Contributor
One day, earlier in the month, a ship, the Golden Akani, for some unknown reason ran aground on Bakud Reef off Kiamba in Sarangani Province!
It has now been removed and towed to Davao by 2 Tug Boats for Repairs I suppose but having seen the rusted chunks of the ships hull, up to 8mm thick laying on the sea bed, to scrap the hulk would be a better option I would think!
Today, we went to Bakud Reef and inspected the damage to the reef top and found a 100 meter long trench which was about 40 meters wide in places and to 10 meters deep dug out by the ship, the tides will change the depth a bit but the normal top depth at that point was around 7 meters so the ship had dug in about 3 meters below the normal sea bed level breaking out big chunks of old coral stone!
The reef itself has been badly abused in the past by Dynamite fishing but is improving, luckily the damage caused by the ship did not create too much extra damage really as it hit a poor area and not an area with good new growth but some corals and sponges were damaged or destroyed!
The strange part of this incident is that there has been no media mention at all and it appears to have been kept under wraps by someone unknown so far!
I am told that Kiamba has been paid a sum of money to cover the damage to the reef but this to me seems to have been a rather fast settlement!
Why did the ship hit a reef which is clearly marked on the marine charts, what was its cargo, what type was it, what flag did it sail under, who owned or chartered it and why did it not make even the local news?
I wonder it these questions will ever be answered or will it remain another Marine Mystery!
It has now been removed and towed to Davao by 2 Tug Boats for Repairs I suppose but having seen the rusted chunks of the ships hull, up to 8mm thick laying on the sea bed, to scrap the hulk would be a better option I would think!
Today, we went to Bakud Reef and inspected the damage to the reef top and found a 100 meter long trench which was about 40 meters wide in places and to 10 meters deep dug out by the ship, the tides will change the depth a bit but the normal top depth at that point was around 7 meters so the ship had dug in about 3 meters below the normal sea bed level breaking out big chunks of old coral stone!
The reef itself has been badly abused in the past by Dynamite fishing but is improving, luckily the damage caused by the ship did not create too much extra damage really as it hit a poor area and not an area with good new growth but some corals and sponges were damaged or destroyed!
The strange part of this incident is that there has been no media mention at all and it appears to have been kept under wraps by someone unknown so far!
I am told that Kiamba has been paid a sum of money to cover the damage to the reef but this to me seems to have been a rather fast settlement!
Why did the ship hit a reef which is clearly marked on the marine charts, what was its cargo, what type was it, what flag did it sail under, who owned or chartered it and why did it not make even the local news?
I wonder it these questions will ever be answered or will it remain another Marine Mystery!
