March 4, 2005

Columbia U. Ship Faces Fines in Mexico

By MARION LLOYD

An American research ship ran aground on a coral reef off the coast of Mexico in February while it was conducting tests that environmentalists said endangered marine mammals, and the ship's operator, Columbia University, now faces heavy fines.

Mexican authorities announced that they had impounded the R/V Maurice Ewing four days after it hit a reef about 30 miles off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, where it was studying a vast meteor crater. The ship, which is owned by the