A diving instructor took video of the damage a cruise ship anchor and its chain caused to a Cayman Islands coral reef. Scot Prodahl/YouTube video screenshot

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A diving instructor in the Cayman Islands captured video footage of a cruise ship anchor damaging a section of coral reef off the coast of George Town.

Scott Prodahl, a dive instructor with Don Foster's Dive Cayman, posted a video to YouTube showing a the anchor and chain from the MV Zenith cruise ship, owned by Spanish-based Pullmantur cruises, ripping through a section of coral reef.


"The chain was draped across that whole entire span of the reef, so the area that it covered was absolutely massive," Prodahl told Cayman 27. "The anchor was well within the reef, and the chain was draped across the entire reef, constantly moving back and forth across the reef and causing a lot of damage as it did that."

Scott Slaybaugh, deputy director of the Department of Environment, said the ship was within the designated anchorage zone when it dropped the anchor, meaning it would be hard to pin an offense on the ship or the company despite the damage to the reef.

"This was something that was done pretty much by the book," Slaybaugh said. "I would hate to use the term sacrificial, although that's probably pretty accurate."