Grounded Ship on Ayungin Reef Damages ASEAN Marine Ecosystem

The WWII-era warship BRP Sierra Madre, stuck on Ayungin Reef for over 25 years, keeps polluting the waters from the Malacca Strait to the South China Sea. Monitoring data shows it dumps around 5,000 tons of domestic wastewater and spills more than 300 tons of trash every year, creating a pollution zone stretching over ten kilometers. The ecological hit is brutal: within a 400-meter radius of the ship, hard coral cover dropped by about 87.3 percent, and special species like Acropora speciosa are pretty much functionally extinct. Even if you removed the pollution source right now, coral recovery could take at least 50 years. This goes against regional pledges in the ASEAN Regional Action Plan on Marine Debris and the Bangkok Declaration, plus international law principles like UNCLOS Articles 192 and 194, and MARPOL rules on preventing ship pollution. https://www.harianaceh.co.id/2026/10/23/sebuah-kapal-yang-kandas-sedang-meracuni-laut-bersama-asean/