These pictures were taken mid-week.
To those who know Sabalos the rough map will - hopefully - give you a fair idea about the damage's extent and location.
Taken at the S-SW end of Area 1
Looking back while swimming Area 1 in a S-SW to N-NE direction
Area 1, look like limestone plates, possibly wrenched off the reef by the freighter's hull
More debris
This and the above photographs clearly show keel marks.
I don't know whether these were caused when the ship was dragged off, but I would have thought so.
Area 1 would have taken the rear half of the stricken freighter
Looking back towards S-SE end of Area 1 from the very edge of the reef wall. The twin holes are immediately to the right and below -off-camera - and apart from an unusual accummulation of sediment/debris it doesn't seem they've been severely damaged.
In two visits I haven't seen the ubiquitous green morays, though.
This looks like tyre debris, probably ripped off the cushioning tyres one of the tugs placed between itself and the back of the freighter while pushing its stern eastwards/stopping it from being dragged ashore.
There's plenty of this stuff lying on the reef and the sandy bottom, I put some in my BCD pockets to dispose of later but there's only so much it can be done in terms of cleaning up without a serious, organised officially-led effort.
S-SW end of Area 2, looking N-NE
Halfway through Area 2, looking N. Both this picture and the one above show how deeply the bow keel gouged the top of Sabalos
Metal debris. These were fairly large segments but there is a lot more strewn around
Taken from the edge of the wall looking back S-SW from the area marked 'Hole/Swim-through' on my map.
This is how Area 1 would have looked before this major ecological disaster and shows how much this - still - wonderful reef has to recover.
Please come dive Sabalos, ask your preferred Playa del Carmen dive operator specifically to take you there so we can all monitor progress, keep it as the major scuba diving reef it always has been and thus help put pressure on local government/environmental/tourist officials to intensify their clean-up/recovery efforts.
