Rebar and buckets of cement aren’t normally things you’d want to see on a snorkel 
or dive trip, but that was exactly what a few divers saw last week at the Wreck of the Rhone National Park. United States marine scientists and Virgin Islands divers were repairing damage to a rock wall at the territory’s most popular dive site.
Last August, the Tropic Sun grounded 40 feet from where the RMS Rhone herself sank in 1837, just off Salt Island. The Rhone was undamaged, but the shipping vessel left a bow-shaped chunk missing from a rock wall in the marine park. Part of that wall was home to various soft and fire corals, said Greg Challenger, a marine biologist with Polaris Applied Sciences, a Seattle-based company that specialises in oil spill response and environmental restoration.
The park was closed for two days until the Tropic Sun could be removed on Aug. 31. In September, Mr. Challenger was part of the team that assessed the site. His suggestion: Rebuild the rock wall from the pieces.
See the July 5, 2012 edition for full coverage.