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U.S. NEWS Friday 10 November 2017

Hawaii boat wreck shows eco-risk of ishing leet practices

seem “like an inadequate the workers jumped off the samples taken there and
response.” burning deck and into the at the beach closest to the
The boat is a longline tuna ocean. Another attempt boat have shown no signs
ishing boat that somehow using a powerful tug boat of fuel or oil, oficials said.
crashed into the shallow and specially designed ca- Keith Kawaoka, Hawaii’s
reef in the middle of the bles also failed. deputy director of environ-
night as it headed to drop Oficials designated a 500- mental health, said “peo-
off the foreign workers for yard (460-meter) safety ple should, for their own
their transfer to other ishing zone around the wrecked safety, stay away from that
boats. vessel. But they do not con- area.” The oil and diesel
No one aboard called for tinuously monitor the site fuel pose possible risks to
help when it ran aground and the beach closest to other nearby reefs and sev-
and the Coast Guard is in- the boat has no signs or eral endangered species,
vestigating the cause of warnings for people to stay including an endangered
the crash. The crew mem- away. Hawaiian monk seal seen
bers were taken into U.S. “I thought it was a tourist swimming near the boat
Custom and Border Protec- thing, I thought it was some Wednesday by an Associ-
People sit on a bench at Kaimana Beach as a paddler goes
by the Paciic Paradise, a commercial ishing vessel that ran tion custody and released attraction or something,” ated Press reporter.
aground about a month ago, in Honolulu. The ishing boat, which to the boats that had con- said Lauren Benschoter, of Oficials are also con-
was transporting foreign workers to Hawaii when it smashed into tracted to bring them to Adrian, Michigan, on va- cerned about the impact
a shallow reef just off the shores of Waikiki, has been leaking oil the state. cation with her husband of the fuel on green and
and fuel into the ocean. The wrecked vessel had about 1500 While a salvage crew was Bryan. hawksbill turtles and have
gallons of diesel and hydraulic oil left in the tanks after the preparing to tow the boat The wreckage is also near said the extent of dam-
vessel caught ire days after the Oct. 10 crash.
(AP Photo/Caleb Jones) away, it caught ire and the Waikiki Aquarium, age to the coral won’t
sent thick black smoke which pumps in seawater be known until the boat is
By CALEB JONES troleum even when they’re over tourists in Waikiki as for its marine life. Water removed.q
Associated Press in the water far from the
HONOLULU (AP) — Just off- wreck site. Some visitors
shore from Waikiki’s pristine mistakenly assume crippled
white sand beaches, a ish- boat is a tourist attraction.
ing boat transporting for- The wrecked vessel had
eign workers destined for about 1,500 gallons (5,700
low-paying jobs in Hawaii’s liters) of diesel and hydrau-
ishing leet smashed into a lic oil left in its tanks after
shallow reef last month. the vessel caught ire days
The stranded boat has after the October 10 crash.
been leaking oil and die- Coast Guard spokesman
sel ever since in an area Lt. Cmdr. Scott Carr on
prized by swimmers and Wednesday minimized the
surfers, and there was a vis- possibility of environmental
ible sheen around the boat damage, saying there is
this week. a sheen on the water but
The crash of the 79-foot that diesel fuel evaporates
(24-meter) Paciic Paradise quickly and that surf breaks
illustrates a potential envi- it apart.
ronmental impact of the “The environment is fairly
Hawaii ishing leet’s prac- resilient,” Carr said.
tice of transporting foreign Efforts to remove the boat
workers by boat. have failed so far, but
The industry already faced swimmer Chris McDonough
criticism following a 2016 said more should be done.
Associated Press investi- He said his surfer friends
gation revealing that the can smell and feel the fuel
workers from Southeast in the water hundreds of
Asia and Paciic nations yards (meters) away from
work without visas, some the wreckage at a popular
making less than $1 an suring spot.
hour and living in squalid “I could feel it on my skin,”
conditions. the Honolulu resident said,
Swimmers and surfers say adding that the boat re-
they feel and smell the pe- moval attempts so far