DOINews: Trustees Propose to Restore Resources Injured by the M/V Casitas Spill in Hawaii - 30 day comment period

Bow of the M/V Casitas aground at Pearl and Hemes Atoll in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Photo credit: NOAA.

The Draft Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan/Environmental Assessment (DARP/EA) for the M/V Casitas grounding and oil spill at Pearl and Hermes Atoll within the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge is available to the public for a 30-day comment period. The Draft DARP/EA summarizes natural resources injuries that resulted from the vessel grounding in 2005 on a coral reef at the Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Hawaiian Islands NWR which is now also part of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monumnet. The Draft DARP/EA decribes how the natural resource Trustees (the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Ocenaic and Atmospheric Administration, and the State of Hawaii) intend to restore habitat equivalent to the natural resources injured by the vessel grounding. The proposed restoration project will be paid for by damages from a legal settlement between the Trustees and the owners and operators of the M/V Casitas.