Chinese fishing vessel that crashed into one of the Philippines’ most famous reefs damaged almost 4,000 square metres of centuries-old coral, the marine park said on Saturday.
Some 3,902 square metres of coral was destroyed after the boat became stranded in the Tubbataha marine park – a Unesco World Heritage-listed coral reef – the park management said.
“The damage the Chinese vessel caused to the reef is heart-breaking,” Angelique Songco, the head of the marine park said in a statement after experts assessed the affected area.
Some of the coral destroyed by the Chinese vessel was 500 years old, Songco said, adding that the damage was much larger than the area destroyed when a US Navy minesweeper, the USS Guardian, got stranded on Tubbataha in January.
The 48-metre vessel, carrying 12 suspected Chinese fishermen, ploughed into the Tubbataha Reef near the western island of Palawan on April 8.
Authorities later found hundreds of dead pangolins, an internationally-protected species, hidden inside the vessel.