The stern of the USS Guardian, the last piece of grounded ship, is removed by a crane vessel on Saturday, March 30. The U.S. Navy minesweeper became trapped on a reef off the western Philippine island of Palawan on January 17. The Navy has pledged to clean up debris and restore the reef as much as possible.
(CNN) -- Work to cut up the hull of a U.S. Navy warship grounded on a Philippine reef is expected to begin shortly, reports from the Philippines said Monday.
Weather will be the determining factor as to when crews will begin cutting up the wood-and-fiberglass hull of the USS Guardian, which has been stranded on Tubbahata Reef in the Sulu Sea since January 17, a Philippine Coast Guard official said. The 224-foot-long hull is expected to be cut into three parts.
"We need six days of very good weather in order to begin cutting and lifting of the hull," Coast Guard Palawan District Commodore Enrico Efren Evanglista told the official Philippine News Agency.
Salvage crews have identified strong points in the hull of the 1,312-ton minesweeper that can be used to lift chunks of the hull off the reef.
"Most of the work is done below deck. The focus of the salvage team is the preparation of the hull for cutting and lifting," the Coast Guard official said.
The superstructure of the vessel has been removed and taken away from the grounding site on Tubbahata Reef, an environmentally sensitive UNESCO World Heritage Site. About 500 species of fish and 350 species of coral can be found there, as can whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles and breeding seabirds, according to UNESCO.
That means crews are taking extra care in removing parts of the ship that could contain residue from oil and fuel, such as pipe fittings, Efren Evanglista said.
The Guardian is estimated to have damaged about 4,000 square meters (about 43,000 square feet) of the reef. The Navy has pledged to clean up the debris created when waves stripped off pieces of fiberglass covering the wooden hull of the ship and to try to restore the reef as much as possible.
An investigation of the grounding is ongoing. Navy officials said in January that the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which prepares the digital navigation charts used by the Navy, has reported the location of the reef was misplaced on a chart by nine miles.
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A crane vessel lifts the bow of the USS Guardian on Tuesday, March 26.
The crane vessel pulls the bow off the ship on March 26.
The crane vessel removes a hull section on Wednesday, March 27. The U.S. Navy expects the Guardian to be completely removed from Tubbataha Reef by mid-April, an official says.
The U.S. Navy and Philippines authorities are working to dismantle the ship.
Brandon Berry grinds through steel in the engine room in preparation for removing machinery.
The USS Guardian's funnel section is lifted Tuesday, February 26, as a task force works on removing equipment.
The USS Guardian rocks in the waves on February 8.
The Malaysian tug Vos Apollo removes diesel fuel and human wastewater from the USS Guardian on January 28.
Waves crash against the USS Guardian in January. The minesweeper is estimated to have damaged 4,000 square meters of the Tubbataha Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In this undated photo, a U.S. Navy diver moves damage control equipment and other materials to be unloaded from the USS Guardian.
The Guardian on the Tubbataha Reef on January 19 in a handout photo from the Philippines military.
Anti-riot police disperse protesters in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila on Friday, January 25. The Filipinos were demonstrating against the grounded U.S. Navy minesweeper and called for the pullout of American troops stationed in the Philippines. They splattered the police with paint.
Malaysian tug Vos Apollo, foreground, prepares to help remove fuel from the USS Guardian while a U.S. Navy boat approaches with a salvage team on Thursday, January 24.
A U.S. Navy salvage assessment team boards the USS Guardian on Wednesday, January 23, in the Sulu Sea.
A member of the Philippines coast guard approaches the USS Guardian on Tuesday, January 22, in a handout picture from the Philippines coast guard.
A diver from the Philippines coast guard measures coral damage on the Tubbataha Reef on January 22 in another handout photo. The reef is a Philippines national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Student activists scuffle with police in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila during a January 19 protest condemning the minesweeper's grounding.
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