Costa Mar reopens inquiry into 2024 grounding that damaged reef

The Federal Maritime Safety Board announced on Friday that it would reopen its inquiry into the grounding of the container ship Meridian Star in December 2024, after new evidence emerged regarding the vessel's course and the adequacy of its route-planning protocols. The ship struck a shallow reef formation off Cabo Verde while traversing a shipping lane operated under agreements with Oriente Moderno's port authority, causing damage to approximately four hectares of coral habitat and triggering a months-long cleanup operation.

The original inquiry, completed in April, concluded that the grounding resulted from "navigational error compounded by inadequate chart updating" and recommended improvements to the port authority's vessel-guidance systems. No vessel operator or crew member was found culpable. The reopened inquiry will examine newly recovered bridge logs and communications records that suggest the ship's master received conflicting routing information in the hours before the incident.

The Costa Mar Reef Monitoring Network, which has tracked the reef's recovery since the grounding, submitted a supplementary report to the board in late June noting that the damage zone has shown slower-than-expected regeneration. The network's director, Dr. Elena Fuentes, said the new findings could inform both the maritime investigation and the federal fisheries council's ongoing review of shipping-lane protocols in sensitive marine zones.