Jeff Greene's Yacht Causes $1.87 Million In Damage to Coral Reef

People need to be held accountable for their actions. Whether Greene or his captain are at fault remains to be determined. Simply saying it never happened and hightailing it out of Belize is not the way to handle this situation.

"On a Tuesday morning five years ago, Summerwind, a three-story, 145-foot luxury yacht, maneuvered above the celebrated barrier reef that lines the coast of Belize.

There it dropped anchor — and plunged into controversy over severe damage to a coral reef system officially recognized by the United Nations as one of the world's most magnificent and irreplaceable treasures.

"The guys from the area told me they were beside the boat before it dropped anchor, and they were yelling and waving their hands, shouting, 'No! No, don't drop here,' '' recounted Melanie McField, a marine scientist with the Smithsonian Institution who surveyed the Central American reef shortly after the incident. "It was bad. There was a lot of damage."

The owner of that yacht? Billionaire Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene."

Continue reading.