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Billionaire's Mega Yacht Wrecked Part Of Lighthouse Reef
posted (February 11, 2020)

Yesterday we showed you how a billionaire's mega-yacht wrecked the reef. That's because major damage was caused to the Lighthouse Reef Atoll area after a luxury yacht belonging to American billionaire hedge funder Daniel Loeb threw its anchor right unto it. The 75-foot chain of the "Samadhi's" anchor was seen to break off pieces of the reef as it tracked along. Â  And after that the Samadhi just rolled out, leaving the costly, irreparable damage in its wake.  Fortunately divers were able to get the footage before it left.  

Today, Legal Counsel for the ministry of the Environment  Jeavon Hulse told us that the Department of the Environment went to gather information.   He says he plans to file an information and complaint against the vessel in the courts - but it will just lie there, since the yacht and its owners have rolled out.

OCEANA says the area located inside the Lighthouse Reef Atoll is one of the area's most popular dive sites, and damage done to the area, simply heart-breaking. Earlier today we spoke to the NGO's Communications Director Alyssa Carnegie-Noble who called the action unconscionable:

Alyssa Carnegie-Noble - OCEANA
"We're in touch with Government officials and in terms of the damages, we're still not sure exactly what the charges or initial impact or kind of assessment has resulted in if we can take past incidents as any type of indication we know that the damages are going to be significant. Coral does take a very long time to grow back and as you can see from the video that was taken by the divers from the dive shop just visually looking at it you can see pieces of coral that are falling off and that it's a significant amount of load or chain from the anchor that's there."

"Well I think beyond the who's the person in this specific occasion, I think it has to go beyond just the one occasion I think to you know a policy overall so that you know these things are minimized and chances for these thing so happen are minimized and if they do happen that they are prosecuted, charged, and fined to the fullest extent of the law. As we understand whoever was on the ship just left. It is heart-breaking and it is unconscionable. We hope that the authorities do get the information they need and that the captain, the crew, the people who are responsible for this are found and do come back and take ownership of this incident and take full responsibility for it and pay for the damages."

"Oceana like every Belizean is really heartbroken by this we've personally had the good fortune to have been out there before and seen this sight before and know it in its glory and so it's something that's really sad to see and as an Organization, we definitely will do our part to insure where we can you know if we can get information how we can get it. We will do that and that has already been conveyed to our government partners."

And yesterday when the Samahdi pulled up anchor and left the Belize City Harbor authorities had not yet been able to address the damages done to the reef. 

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