SUPSALV & Finding El Faro
a few weeks. Unfortunately, we have yet to be able to locate the VDR. The accident is still under investigation with the NTSB and United States Coast Guard. A second salvage example would be the successful removal of USS Guardian (MCM 5) in 2013. The ship unfortunately ran hard aground on Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea in the Philippines. Due to the sensitive reef environment, the inability to access the vessel with large removal equipment, monsoon weather and seas, SUPSALV brought together a team of navy divers, a navy salvage ship, salvage engineers, and commercial salvors to safely remove
Salvage Team Removes Fuel From Grounded USS Guardian
To prevent potential environmental damage, a U.S. Navy-led salvage team on Jan. 25 completed removing all diesel fuel from the tanks of the mine countermeasures ship USS Guardian (MCM 5), which ran aground on the Tubbataha Reef one week earlier. No fuel has leaked since the grounding and approximately 15,000 gallons was safely transferred to the contracted Malaysian tug Vos Apollo during controlled defueling operations that occurred over the last two days. “One of our priorities was to get the fuel out of the ship in order to minimize environmental damage,” said Rear Adm.
Reef Grief for USN Ship
The mine counter-measures ship 'USS Guardian' (MCM 5) still sits on the Tubbataha Reef. Operations to safely recover the ship while minimizing environmental effects are being conducted in close cooperation with allied Philippines Coast Guard and Navy. Prior to leaving port in Subic Bay, Guardian canceled a scheduled fuel stop to Puerto Princesa, thus the Guardian departed Olongapo City en route to Indonesia and was transiting the Sulu Sea when the grounding occurred at approximately 2:25 a.m. Thursday, 17, January. Based in Sasebo, Japan, the Avenger-class mine counter-measures ship
February 2024
