Billionaire Paul Allen's yacht destroyed protected coral in Caribbean: media

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Brisbane Times

Billionaire Paul Allen's yacht destroyed protected coral in Caribbean: media

Date January 29, 2016 - 11:41AM 54 reading now

Eric M. Johnson

Seattle: A massive luxury yacht owned by Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen destroyed most of a protected coral reef during a visit to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean earlier this month, media reported.

An anchor chain from the vessel damaged nearly 1300 square metres, or about 80 per cent, of reef near two scuba diving sites in the West Bay, the islands' environment department said, according to the Cayman News Service.

Mr Allen's Seattle-based Vulcan Inc organisation, which manages his fortune, said on Wednesday that the M/V Tatoosh was moored on January 14 in a "position explicitly directed" by the local port authority and that his team was co-operating with the investigation.

"When its crew was alerted by a diver that her anchor chain may have impacted coral in the area, the crew promptly, and on their own accord, relocated their position to ensure the reef was protected," Vulcan said.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/billionaire-paul-allens-yacht-destroyed-caribbean-protected-coral-media-20160129-gmgpit.html

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[center]









West Bay Cayman Islands





92m M/Y Tatoosh, owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who also owns 127m M/Y Octopus.



127m M/Y Octopus.[/center]

[secondwind]

1. I really hate seeing beautiful creatures corralled like this... makes me sick! As for the coral,

this is heartbreaking, but it appears that they are cooperating with authorities.

Release those turtles!

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

7. The Caymans does a lot of work to protect the sea turtles.

Since around 90% of the baby turtles get eaten the second they hit the water, the Caymans will raise them until they are old enough to survive on their own and then they are released. So don't be pissed off because they are doing very good work protecting these creatures.

[trillion]

16. I think the ice berg is that the money laundering for the climate damage is that is destroying the

turtles in the first place, is going on in the Caymans.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

17. So they should n't try to save the poor widdle toitles?

[wordpix]

20. my first thought: is Allen checking up on his tax haven loot in the Caymans?

maybe that's why he's there

[Sunlei]

2. huge yachts are to big to moor in the regular areas, they should make them use the cruise ship docks

[mpcamb]

3. When I see those gigantic fuel-burners I try to note the country of registration.

It's never the US.

[getagrip_already]

6. someone should point out trumps yacht is registered in another country......

that's if he still has it that is.....

it's done to dodge taxes. he would pay a small fortune if was registered as a us vessel from ny (where it is likely berthed unless its off in the bahamas somewhere).

[mpcamb]

8. Or maybe the Caymans when the rich go to visit their money-

and dodge paying taxes on it.

[jmowreader]

12. It's not JUST to dodge taxes, but that's a large part of it

Flag-of-convenience countries ALSO have lower standards for their shipping fleets.

[getagrip_already]

18. true, but yachts aren't carrying cargo....

Although they do have crews. And countries offering flags of convenience don't have labor laws. So they can be as republican as they want in regards to wage theft and working conditions.

For yachts, it's all about taxes and operating costs. They aren't skirting safety regs since they don't want to go down, but that doesn't mean they care about the crews.

[Blandocyte]

4. "Your goddamm coral is in the way of my yacht!"

"There, I fixed it for you."

[mainstreetonce]

5. This is heartbraking

I have seen the Octopus in port. When .I saw the headline .I was scared that it was in Kralendijk which is where I have seen it.

"coral reefs before it's too late ". God damn you, Paul
Allen.

[Xithras]

9. Terrible. Allen has been an outspoken advocate of marine preservation.

He actually uses these yachts to entertain political leaders and others as he champions various environmental laws. It's one thing to talk to someone in a capitol building about the ocean, and it's another thing entirely to fly them out to the reefs and show them what they need to protect. Allen's foundation has taken a lead role in funding and championing research into coral bleaching, ocean acidification, overfishing, oceanic pollution and a bunch of other ocean conservation issues. It's disheartening to hear that his ship did this much damage.

[Javaman]

10. if what you said is true, then there needs to be an investigation...

someone truly fucked up.

[Xithras]

11. Allen is blaming the port authority.

The ships crew claims that they were operating under the direction of the islands port authority at the time, and that the ship was moored exactly where the port authority told them to drop anchor. The protected area isn't actually a "reserve" and isn't marked on any nautical maps, so the captain had no way of knowing that they were mooring over a coral reef. According to them, when the port authority told them to moor in that spot, they followed the authorities direction.. Divers later informed them that they were damaging coral underneath the ship, so they pulled up anchor and immediately moved to another area.

We're going to need an investigation to figure out who's telling the truth.

[flamingdem]

13. Here is a man who can actually pay

for his errors, and he had better!

[ancianita]

14. Saw this a few days ago. Wondered whether it would show up here, if at all.

[wordpix]

19. frickin 1%er. Selling Microsoft soon, cannot stand to invest with these asshats