The Department of the Environment is calculating the damage caused by a US registered pleasure yacht that ran aground the reef near Hatchet Caye on Saturday.

The Southern Environmental Association, known as "SEA," has its Ranger Station nearby on Little Water Caye and Gladden Spit in the Silk Cayes Marine Reserve. That conservation NGO reports that the vessel has been removed by the Belize Port Authority and the Department of the Environment is preparing a formal damage assessment.
This is after a team of eight representatives from the
Department of the Environment, the Belize Port
Authority the Fisheries Department, the Immigration Department and the Southern Environmental Association conducted an assessment yesterday. SEA's science researcher says the immediate area is teeming with invertebrate life forms, but there is only about 5% of live coral coverage. The assessment will determine how much of this was damaged.

The yacht is registered in Delaware, USA and is named "Rumba." (3) Colombians, four (4) Guatemalans and one (1) American citizen were onboard; they were headed from Livingston Guatemala to the Big Creek Port in Independence.