Marine solve is en route to a remote reef off Puerto Rico with its 400-ton shear-leg barge to recover a luxury sailing vessel that has been grounded there for a month and continues to pose a pollution hazard to marine life, Coast Guard officials said.

The 164’x54′ RMG400 is being towed by a tugboat from Baltimore, Maryland, to Culebra, Puerto Rico, where the 72-foot sailing catamaran obsession ran aground off Flamenco Beach on July 21.

The crane vessel is expected to arrive before the end of August. Once in place, the RMG 400 A-frame will be able to “cleanly lift” the vessel, Coast Guard officials said. Responders are closely monitoring tropical weather systems.

“Fortunately, the passage of Tropical Storm Ernesto had no impact on the conditions at the construction site, as the ship obsession remains aground and stable, with no signs of external contamination,” said Chief Warrant Officer Jamie Testa, federal incident coordinator for Sector San Juan.

“While we wait for the crane vessel to arrive, we continue to work with the experts at Resolve Marine. Clean ports GmbH, tow, the vessel owner and our local and federal partner agencies who are committed to taking all possible measures to protect the environment and minimize further impacts to the reef and surrounding marine life.”

Resolve Marine and Clean Harbors, LLC crews completed the removal of approximately 1,500 gallons of diesel from the four fuel tanks and one day tank on July 31.

However, they assumed that there was still a significant risk from remaining oil and other hazardous substances because tanks, engine rooms and access hatches were underwater or inaccessible.

Coast Guard watchstanders in the San Juan Sector received a distress call on VHF channel 16 from the British Virgin Islands-flagged obsession at 19:51 on July 21 and reported that the vessel with four people on board had run aground and was taking on water off Flamenco Beach.

Coast Guard crews and a marine unit from the Joint Forces of Puerto Rico found the vessel pinned to a reef in shallow water. There were no injuries and the Obsessions The occupants initially decided to stay on board while they tried to drain the ship.

A Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter crew from Borinquen Air Force Base delivered two dewatering pumps to the vessel. As rescue efforts continued, it was discovered that one of the vessel’s pontoons was damaged. Although the vessel’s fuel tanks remained intact, extensive salvage operations were required.

The ship’s owner asked the Coast Guard for help after “its attempts to engage a commercial salvage company to salvage the vessel were unsuccessful and required efforts beyond its capabilities to resolve the matter,” the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard then activated the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and contracted Resolve Marine, which in turn contracted Clean Harbors as a subcontractor. The companies began moving equipment and personnel to Culebra to conduct the fuel removal operation.

An emergency consultation on the federal Endangered Species Act has been initiated to identify risks to protected species, including Green sea turtles, Atlantic ridley, leatherback and hawksbill turtles; giant manta rays, oceanic whitetip sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks, Nassau groupers, giant snails; and rock corals, staghorn corals, mountain star corals, pillar corals, staghorn corals and rough cactus corals. No impacts to marine life in the area have been reported pending reef damage assessment.