A U.S. Navy ship has run aground off the waters of the Philippines. The incident left the minesweeper stuck on a reef.
The USS Guardian ran aground in the Sulu Sea when it hit the Tubbataha Reef at around 2:25 a.m. The ship was on its way to it's next port of call from Subic Bay when it grounded.
There are 81 crew members on board but there were no injuries. There were also no reports of a fuel leak from the vessel.
"The ship is currently stuck on the reef, approximately 80 miles east-southeast of Palawan Island," a Navy statement said, according to Yahoo. "The crew is currently working to determine the best method of safely extracting the ship."
Officials are investigating the incident and trying to find what damage occurred.
The USS Guardian, which is based in Sasebo, Japan, has six officer and 75 sailors.
A Navy official said the grounding is under investigation. An initial damage assessment did not find any leakage of fuel or oil from the ship.
According to a Navy fact sheet, as cited by Yahoo, the ship is part of the Navy's 14 Avenger-class ships which "are designed as mine sweepers/hunter-killers capable of finding, classifying and destroying moored and bottom mines." They "use sonar and video systems, cable cutters and a mine detonating device that can be released and detonated by remote control. They are also capable of conventional sweeping measures."
This isn't the first time a large ship grounded on the reefs of the Sulu Sea, according to the GMA Network. The Greenpeace-owned Rainbow Warrior also hit the Tubbataha reef and damaged a large area of corals in 2005. The environmental group had to pay a fine of $6,857 (384,000 pesos) for the incident.
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