‘A bridge too far’: local anger at dismantling of historic bridge for Bezos boat

DutchNews, February 3, 2022, Senay Boztas

The Hef is an iconic part of Rotterdam’s skyline. Photo: elm3r via Wikimedia Commons

The Rotterdam branch of political party GroenLinks has called an emergency council debate over the fact that an iconic bridge will be temporarily taken apart to allow passage for a mega-yacht for Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos. 

The news that a section of national monument De Hef would be dismantled (and then put together again) to allow passage for the 127m long, three-masted, aluminium and steel schooner swiftly voyaged the world. 

But the story, broken on Wednesday by local broadcaster Rijnmond, sparked fury amongst history lovers, the Dutch public and some local councillors. 

GroenLinks councillor Stephan Leewis told Rijnmond that he took a dim view of the permission, particularly in the light of Amazon personnel policies and tax andregulation avoidance battles. 

‘Now, we have to break apart our beautiful listed monument?’ he reportedly said, in calling an emergency debate. ‘This really is a bridge too far.’ 

Heritage 

According to Dutch media, next week Rotterdam city council will debate the planning permission given to dismantle the middle section of the 1927 bridge, and reconstruct it – reportedly, at the cost of shipbuilder Oceanco and Bezos. 

Project leader at Rotterdam city council Marcel Walravens previously defended the decision as a pragmatic one. ‘It is about a ship with high masts which cannot pass through the bridge. The only alternative is to take out the middle section,’ he told Rijnmond. 

Walravens hoped that with proper preparation, the middle section of the bridge would only be removed for a day and pointed out the economic and jobs benefit to the region, plus the boost to its international shipbuilding reputation. 

However, some history experts were unimpressed. ‘Jobs are important, but there are limits with what you can and should do with our industrial heritage,’ said Ton Wesselink of the local history society Historisch Genootschap Roterodamum to Rijnmond. 

‘Inequality’ 

On social media, commentators also pointed out the apparent inconsistency in strict, Dutch listed building policy and the privilege apparently afforded to an American billionaire to take apart a bridge which the council had previously promised would no longer be touched. 

On social media, the story inspired humorous comment as well as outrage, particularly in the light of the bridge’s historical destruction during the 1940 Nazi bombardment. A commenter called ‘Marky Mark’ suggested: ‘Can’t we simply dismantle Jeff Bezos and have Rotterdam pass through him?’ 

Jeroen Stet commented: ‘Mega-yachts are a symbol of greed, inequality, and all that is bad about capitalism and the impact it has on the world. If you think you need something like this, it says a lot about you.’ 

Ophef 

Others pointed out that the bridge would be repaired again, and that the shipyard was a huge local employer. Meanwhile, Paul Peeters, podcast host at DutchNews.nl, noted that this was a scandal, or ophef, with a ring about it: ‘De Hef/Jeff-ophef.’ 

At 127 metres long, Bezos’ yacht is set to be the largest sailing yacht in the world when delivered at some point this year, according to Boat International. It is reportedly being moved from one shipyard to another for final fitting. 

A spokesman for Rotterdam council told DutchNews.nl. ‘The municipality of Rotterdam only gives permission to the maritime sector to take a ship to sea. The municipality does not build ships, so we have no further information about this.’

Beloved baby dugong 'Mariam' dies in Thailand with plastic in stomach

Yahoo – AFP, August 17, 2019

Mariam washed up in shallow waters off southwestern Thailand months ago
and photos of her quickly went viral (AFP Photo/Sirachai ARUNRUGSTICHAI)

A sick baby dugong whose fight for recovery won hearts in Thailand and cast a spotlight on ocean conservation has died from an infection exacerbated by bits of plastic lining her stomach, officials said Saturday.

Mariam washed up in shallow waters off southwestern Thailand months ago and photos of her nuzzling playfully next to rescuers quickly went viral.

The discovery soon after of another orphaned dugong brought the sea cows celebrity status, the attention of a Thai princess -- who named the second one "Jamil" -- and round-the-clock webcasts giving viewers a front-row seat to feedings and treatment.

But Mariam died just after midnight after going into shock and efforts to resuscitate her failed, Chaiyapruk Werawong, head of Trang province marine park, told AFP.

"She died from a blood infection and pus in her stomach," he said, adding they found small amounts of plastic waste in her intestinal tract.

Footage released by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) showed vets attempting to revive Mariam using CPR.

Several pieces of plastic were found in her intestine, with one measuring up to 20 centimetres (eight inches).

The plastic had caused obstructions in the animal's stomach, leading to inflammation and gas build-up, veterinarian Nantarika Chansue posted on Facebook.

Several pieces of plastic were found in her intestine, 

with one measuring up to 20 cm (AFP Photo/Handout)d.

"We could partially treat the respiratory infection but the obstruction of plastic rubbish... could not be cured," she said in the post, calling for the young animal's death to serve as a lesson.

"She taught us how to love and then went away as if saying please tell everyone to look after us and conserve her species."

The dugongs are the latest marine creatures to make headlines in Thailand, whose plastic-choked waters are also a threat to habitats.

Both the animals were found in southern Thailand, home to about 250 of the sea cows, which are closely related to the manatee and classified as vulnerable.

Jamil, whose name translates to "handsome sea prince", is being cared for separately in Phuket.

Mariam's death was also announced on the Facebook page of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources.

The post quickly garnered more than 11,000 shares and thousands of comments mourning the loss, while a meme with a picture of Mariam and "RIP" circulated online.

"It's a pity for those who fed her milk and collected sea grass for their little daughter that we have to lose Mariam because of plastic waste," one commenter said.

Death of baby dolphin triggers outrage in Spain

Yahoo – AFP, August 16, 2017

The baby dolphin died after being manhandled by bathers, the Equinac
conservation group said (AFP Photo/HO)

Madrid (AFP) - Spanish animal lovers reacted with fury on Wednesday after a baby dolphin approached a holiday beach, where it died as bathers played with it and took pictures.

A whale and dolphin conservation group, Equinac, said the incident occurred Saturday on the tourist beach of Mojacar, in the southeast of the country.

Bathers played with the dolphin in the shallows, inadvertently blocking her breathing hole and pulling her from the water for pictures, probably causing stress that proved fatal, it said.

The baby may have turned up on the beach because it was separated from its mother -- in which case, it could not have survived -- or because it was sick, Equinac suggested.

Twitter users responded with outrage.

"If you go to the beach, leave your stupidity at home," said one.

"Did you take selfies after it died?" asked another.

A Facebook posting by an animal rights party, Pacma, which blamed "harassment by bathers" for the mammal's death, was "liked" more than 4,800 times.

New Chinese home for 'world's saddest polar bear'

Yahoo – AFP, November 14, 2016

Visitors take photos of polar bear Pizza inside his enclosure at the Grandview
Mall Aquarium in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in July 2016 (AFP Photo)

A polar bear dubbed the "world's saddest" by animal rights activists has been removed from a Chinese shopping mall where campaigners said it was suffering in unsuitable conditions.

The Grandview Mall in the southern city of Guangzhou held a farewell party for Pizza the bear at the weekend, it said on social media.

A spokesman for the mall, which set up an "Ocean World" attraction with 500 species to try to draw in shoppers, told AFP: “Pizza left the aquarium with escorts after the farewell party” on Sunday.

Chinese media reports said he was returning to the facility where he was born in captivity in the northern port of Tianjin.

The mall claimed the move was a temporary one due to the facility being renovated, and that Pizza would return after the works were completed.

But the US-based Humane Society International mounted a media-friendly campaign to highlight the bear's plight, coining the description the "world's saddest polar bear" and generating global headlines.

It distributed video showing Pizza pacing around his 40-square-metre glass-fronted enclosure and shaking his head as onlookers took pictures on their cellphones.

Arturo the polar bear was the latest of more than 60 animals to die over recent 

months at the zoo in the western city of Mendoza (AFP Photo/Andres Larrovere)

The footage showed the bear was in poor physical and mental condition, it said.

Peter Li, China policy expert at HSI said in a statement: "Pizza the polar bear has endured a life of deprivation and suffering in his small, artificial glass-fronted room at the shopping mall.

"At last he will feel the sun on his fur, sniff fresh air and see the sky above in the company of his mum and dad."

The move was a result of public pressure, he said, and suggested that if the bear was in poor health that could be another factor.

“We implore the Mall to make this a permanent move for Pizza and to not condemn him to return," he added.

Pictures of the bear's farewell party posted on China's Twitter-like Weibo by the mall showed children queuing up to say goodbye to the bear.

“Tears and sadness are only temporary, we will make the cosiest home to await your return,” it said.

China aquarium refuses to deliver 'sad bear' Pizza to UK

Yahoo – AFP, September 20, 2016

"Pizza" the polar bear stands up inside his enclosure at the Grandview Mall Aquarium
 in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, in an undated image supplied on
September 20, 2016 by Hong Kong-based activist organisation Animals Asia
(AFP Photo)

Beijing (AFP) - A Chinese aquarium keeping a forlorn-looking polar bear named Pizza said Tuesday it has "no need" for foreign interference, after activists offered to move the animal to a British zoo.

Animals Asia, a Hong Kong-based organisation, created a petition calling for the closure of the Grandview aquarium in the Chinese city of Guangzhou that attracted half a million signatures.

Photos of Pizza shared widely on social media show the bear lying listlessly on the ground in a gloomy, windowless room while visitors crowd around taking photos on their cell phones.

Activists said the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in England had offered to adopt Pizza on condition that he was not replaced by another polar bear, adding the zoo would not pay for the animal due to "fear that any funds could be used to buy more animals".

But the zoo declined to comment or confirm the offer while the aquarium operator said no one had contacted him about taking the bear, adding they "have no need for foreign organisations to get involved".

"Yorkshire Wildlife Park has not contacted us," said the general manager of the aquarium, a man surnamed Fan who refused to give his full name.

Arturo the polar bear was the latest of more than 60 animals to die over recent

months at the zoo in the western city of Mendoza (AFP Photo/Andres Larrovere)

"We are a legally compliant aquarium, run according to Chinese standards and protecting animal rights. In the future we will strengthen the protection of animal rights and welfare," he added.

The cost of transferring the large, living carnivore nearly 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) from Guangzhou to Doncaster, England "will be raised if the offer is accepted", Animals Asia said.

The activists said they are now pushing for a meeting with the aquarium in hopes of getting a response to their offer, adding they will draw up a bill if officials agree to have Pizza delivered.

The animal welfare director of Animals Asia, Dave Neale, said in a statement that the aquarium "have the chance to put their mistake right" and end the crush of negative media attention.

The group has been publicising Pizza's plight since the beginning of the year.

DiCaprio unveils free technology to spy on global fishing

Yahoo - AFP, Kerry Sheridan, September 15, 2016

US actor and environmental campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio has turned his focus
 on illegal fishing, which accounts for up to 35 percent of the global wild marine
catch (AFP Photo/Kazuhiro Nogi)

Miami (AFP) - American movie star Leonardo DiCaprio unveiled Thursday a free technology that allows users to spy on global fishing practices, in a bid to curb illegal activity in the oceans and rebuild imperiled fish stocks.

The technology, known as Global Fishing Watch, was officially released to the public during the Our Oceans Conference hosted by US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington on Thursday and Friday.

"Today, this unprecedented technology is available to everyone in the world. I encourage everyone to go check it out," DiCaprio told the conference.

"This platform will empower citizens across the globe to become powerful advocates for our oceans."

Available at GlobaFishingWatch.org, the technology aims to offer a crowd sourced solution to the problem of illegal fishing, which accounts for up to 35 percent of the global wild marine catch and causes yearly losses of $23.5 billion, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Overfishing is also a growing problem worldwide, with about two thirds of fish stocks in the high seas either over exploited or depleted, said the FAO.

Some of the planet's largest fish, including tuna and swordfish, are below 10 percent of their historical level.

Using satellite technology combined with radar aboard boats, the platform allows people to zero in on areas of interest around the world and trace the paths of 35,000 commercial fishing vessels.

"It gives the public an opportunity to see what is happening, even out in the middle of the ocean," said John Amos, president and founder of SkyTruth, one of three partners in the project along with Google and Oceana.

"We need the public to be engaged to convince governments and convince the seafood industry that they need to solve the problems of overfishing," Amos told AFP.

"If you can't see it and can't measure it, you are not going to care about it and it is not going to get solved."

Overfishing is a growing problem around the world, with about two-thirds of fish

stocks in the high seas either over exploited or depleted (AFP Photo/Fred Tanneau)

DiCaprio-funded

The project has cost $10.3 million over the past three years to build, with $6 million of those funds contributed by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in January.

In order the make the data available for free, Oceana and its partners negotiated a deal with the satellite company Orbcomm to use its three-day old data, which is described as "near real-time," along with historical records.

Although the delay means that any criminals won't be nabbed instantaneously, advocates say the technology will open the world's waters to public watchdogs in a way that has never been done before.

"We think it is going to have a lot of impact, first of all just the deterrent effect of vessels knowing that we could see them if they are doing something they are not supposed to be doing," Savitz said.

"You can look at an area you are interested in, zoom in and see what data we have."

Possible uses

For instance, users could zero in on a marine protected area and see if any boat tracks have crossed into waters where they should not have been.

One could scan the map for any evidence that large vessels are fishing in areas that are reserved for small-scale fishermen.

Vessels can be tracked by name or by country, or by traffic inside exclusive economic zones.

The paths of ships are visible, including zigzag paths that could indicate vessels are avoiding shore to offload their catch on to other ships undetected, or that other illegal operations or human rights abuses may be under way.

GlobalFishingWatch.org allows people to trace the paths of commercial fishing

 vessels and make sure boats haven't strayed into marine protected areas 

(AFP Photo/Cris Bouroncle)

Savitz said some capacities may be beyond the ability of the average Internet user, but that experts are available via the website to help with specific questions.

Future versions of the technology may even include tagging data for marine animals, so that the paths of whales and sharks and other fish might be visible alongside the vessel activity, she said.

Currently, Global Fishing Watch does not include every vessel, only those that broadcast data from the Automatic Identification System, collected by satellite and terrestrial receivers and meant mainly as a safety mechanism to avoid collisions.

Many of the world's largest fishing vessels are required by the International Maritime Organization to use AIS.

AIS can be turned off if the boat operator is doing something illegal, but Savitz said that such an on-off action would likely be apparent by tracing the boat's appearing and disappearing tracks.

Already, the government of Kiribati has used Global Fishing Watch data to unmask illegal fishing in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, declared off-limits to commercial fishing on January 1, 2015.

The owners of the vessel had to pay a $1 million fine and also made a "goodwill" donation of another $1 million grant, Oceana said.

Related Articles:

Indonesia to Partner With Interpol in Tackling Illegal Fishing

Google joins fight against illegal fishing

New Zealand crowdfunding campaign 'saves' remote beach

Yahoo – AFP, 26 February 2016

Awaroa inlet is an 800-metre stretch of golden sand adjoining the Abel Tasman

National Park at the top of New Zealand's South Island (AFP Photo)

Wellington (AFP) - A New Zealand man behind an ambitious crowdfunding campaign that raised millions of dollars to buy a privately-owned South Island beach said on Friday he was stunned at its success.

Duane Major's push to take Awaroa beach out of private hands and make it a national park quickly went viral, attracting 40,000 donations to raise a total of NZ$2.3 million (US$1.6 million).

Major, a pastor who describes himself as "an ordinary bloke", called the response to his givealittle.co.nz page as heartwarming.

"I always thought we could do it but I didn't anticipate what a crazy, heartwarming ride it would be," he told AFP.

"It's really tapped into a community spirit among New Zealanders. I've been getting poems from schoolkids talking about our beach. It gives me goosebumps."

Awaroa inlet is an 800-metre (2,600-foot) stretch of golden sand adjoining the Abel Tasman National Park at the top of South Island.

Accessible only by boat or helicopter, it came on the market late last year, with real estate agents marketing it as "the best beach on the planet".

Major decided after discussions with relatives over the Christmas period that a crowdfunding page was "certainly worth a shot".

Tens of thousands of New Zealanders agreed, and Givealittle said it had become the country's largest ever crowdfunding effort, raising more than NZ$1.0 million in a single day.

Accessible only by boat or helicopter, New Zealand's Awaroa inlet came on the 

market late last year, with real estate agents marketing it as 'the best beach on

the planet' (AFP Photo)

"It's the largest campaign we've facilitated by a long way," a spokeswoman told AFP.

Major said donations ranged from children giving a dollar to corporations pledging tens of thousands.

The government chipped in NZ$350,000 earlier this week to get the campaign over the line and the tender offer was formally accepted on Wednesday.

Major said he was overjoyed at preserving "a slice of paradise" for future generations and was already considering more crowdfunding conservation campaigns.

"We were celebrating last night and I was yakking (talking) to a guy with a big beard called Mike and he said 'wouldn't it be good to do it again?'," he said.

"I told him I'm just trying to catch my breath now, but I could feel the energy coming back."

China fishes for growth with world's largest aquarium

Yahoo – AFP, Tom Hancock, 17 Aug 2014

Visitors look at the aquarium inside the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom on

 Hengqin Island, in Zhuhai, China's southern Guangdong province, on April 29, 2014

(AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)

A giant 63-metre blue whale shark statue towers over the world's largest aquarium, on a Chinese island being promoted as a testing ground for reforms aimed at encouraging domestic consumption as the driver of economic growth.

Hengqin island is just across the Pearl River from Shenzhen, the boom town on the border with Hong Kong that was designated a Special Economic Zone 35 years ago.

At the time Shenzhen was a fishing village. Now foreign investment and a freer capitalist economy have turned it into an export powerhouse with a population of more than 10 million and miles of high-rise buildings.

Visitors look at the aquarium inside the

 Chimelong Ocean Kingdom on Hengqin 

Island, in Zhuhai, China's southern

Guangdong province, on April 29, 2014

(AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)

But in the face of a long term slowdown in growth, China is looking to refocus its economy to one where expansion is driven by domestic consumption rather than infrastructure investment and overseas trade.

Hengqin is being developed as a test bed for a new kind of reform, said to stretch even to punching holes through the country's "Great Firewall" of Internet censorship.

Now largely fields and scrubland, the island is intended as a hub for education, creative industries and tourism, with theme parks, hotels and restaurants tapping the swelling wallets of China's new middle class.

The aquarium at the $5 billion Chimelong Ocean Kingdom holds a stupendous 49 million litres (about 50,000 tons) of water -- certified as the world's largest by Guinness World Records when it opened in March -- held back by a cinema-screen-sized window bathing spectators in blue light.

A rainbow of sea creatures from tiny yellow croakers, blue sailfish and lumbering sharks drifted past.

"It's huge," 11 year-old Wu Junfeng exclaimed, as his mother looked on, clutching their 300 yuan ($50) tickets. "There's fish and turtles!"

Half-finished blocks

Local officials offering a raft of tax breaks say they have attracted 250 billion yuan in investment since the project was launched in 2008.

"We have even more special policies than the special economic zones" such as Shenzhen, Hengqin government chief Niu Jing told AFP.

Beluga whales leap from the water during a performance at the Chimelong Ocean

 Kingdom on Hengqin Island, in Zhuhai, China's southern Guangdong province, 

on April 29, 2014 (AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)

"Hengqin's position is unique, with clear advantages, being a neighbour of Macau and Hong Kong," he added.

The British ex-colony is one of Asia's key financial hubs, while the former Portuguese enclave, just a few minutes' drive down the coast from Hengqin, is the world's most lucrative gambling centre.

It attracts millions of visitors from China's mainland, where casinos are banned, and has annual receipts seven times higher than Las Vegas.

But Hengqin has a long way to go.

The island has fewer than 10,000 permanent residents -- officials say there will be more than 250,000 by 2020 -- and the wide highway to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom passes dozens of half-finished apartment blocks.

Facebook, Twitter

The promised reforms are also a work in progress.

Analysts say China's tight censorship system -- most notable in the government's blocks on foreign websites, known as the "Great Firewall" -- and close control of universities stifle creativity.

A visitor looks at a stingray inside the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom on Hengqin

 Island, in Zhuhai, China's southern Guangdong province, on April 29, 2014 (AFP

Photo/Mark Ralston)

So Hengqin officials claim to be relaxing limits on freedom of speech to burnish the island's credentials as a centre for education and culture.

Residents will "have unrestricted Internet access, and enjoy social and political rights as they do in Macau", the government-run China Daily said last year.

The Global Times, which is close to the Communist Party, said officials had submitted a plan to make Hengqin "the first region on the Chinese mainland where local residents can skirt the firewall and get access to blocked websites including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube".

But the prohibitions were still in place when AFP visited and Hengqin's government refused to comment on the proposal's status.

The University of Macau is building a campus for 15,000 students on the island, and says it will come under Macanese jurisdiction -- which has more robust protections for academic freedom than the mainland.

But under President Xi Jinping, China has tightened controls on civil society, the media and Internet in recent months.

The crackdown has apparently spread to Macau, where a French academic was reportedly sacked in July after he organised a conference on tens of millions of deaths caused by a 1950s famine blamed on Mao Zedong and Communist Party policies.

Island authorities have also promised reforms to China's Communist-controlled legal system, where corruption has long unnerved investors.

Entrance to the Chimelong Ocean

Kingdom, on Hengqin Island in Zhuhai, 

China's southern Guangdong province, 

pictured on April 29, 2014

(AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)

Karen Kwan, an analyst for Hong-based Kim Eng Securities who has visited the island several times said she was "cautiously optimistic" that it could cash in on the millions thronging to Macau.

Early housing sales have gone well and prices have risen despite a nationwide property slowdown, she noted.

But its target customers gave it mixed reviews.

"We think it's more fun than Macau," said Sylvia Liang, a 21-year-old advertising student, as she watched white beluga whales whistle while wetsuited attendants balanced on their backs in an auditorium at the aquarium complex.

School student Wu, though, preferred to be among the high-rollers down the coast.

"My parents usually go to Macau to gamble," he explained. "So they leave me alone."

US navy finds wreck of missing yacht

Upturned hull of Cheeki Rafiki discovered but life raft was still attached and no sign of missing British yachtsmen

TheGuardian, Haroon Siddique and agencies, Saturday 24 May 2014

Overturned hull of the Cheeki Rafiki as discovered by a US
navy warship. Photograph: US navy

The hull of the yacht Cheeki Rafiki, which went missing a week ago with four British sailors on board, has been found by the US navy, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed. Officials said there was still no sign of the missing yachtsmen and the search had been suspended after the life raft was found unused and still attached to the vessel.

Steve Warren, 52, from Bridgwater, Somerset, Andrew Bridge, 22, from Farnham in Surrey, James Male, 23, from Southampton, and Paul Goslin, 56, from West Camel, Somerset were sailing in a treacherous stretch of ocean from a regatta in Antigua to Southampton on 16 May when their yacht capsized and they went missing.

A Foreign Office spokesman said it was keeping in close contact with the US coast guard (USCG), which made the discovery in the north Atlantic. They have informed family members of the missing men of the discovery.

Early on Saturday morning the Foreign Office confirmed the search for survivors had been called off. "I am sad to confirm that the search for the Cheeki Rafiki has now been suspended," said Hugh Robertson, the Foreign Office minister for North America. "My sincere condolences go out to the families of James Male, Andrew Bridge, Steve Warren and Paul Goslin at this very difficult and distressing time."

In a statement on Friday evening the USCG said there was nothing in the wreckage's discovery to suggest the crew would still be alive. "Navy crews observed that the sailing vessel's keel was broken off, causing a breach in the hull.

"The US coast guard has confirmed the life raft aboard the capsized sailing vessel Cheeki Rafiki was secured in its storage space in the aft portion of the boat, Friday, indicating it was not used for emergency purposes.

Damage to the hull of the Cheeki Rafiki.

"A US navy warship smallboat crew and surface swimmer captured underwater imagery clearly identifying the raft in its storage space. The image was shared with and acknowledged by the families.

"The US coast guard made an announcement, Thursday, that search operations would be suspended at midnight Friday unless new information or sightings suggested the crew would still be alive. None of the current developments indicate that to be the case."

It said a US navy warship helicopter crew discovered the overturned hull 1,000 miles off Massachusetts. A close inspection of the debris confirmed the identity of the yacht, which had been flooded.

It said: "The swimmer determined the boat's cabin was flooded and windows were shattered, contributing to the complete flooding inside.

"The swimmer also knocked on the hull and reached an arm's length below the waterline with no results. Surface swimmers are not trained divers and do not perform sub-surface operations."

Early on Saturday morning the Foreign Office released a statement on behalf of Stephen Warren's family. "We are very sad that the US has now suspended the search for Stephen and his friends," they said.

"From the beginning we, together with the other families involved, have continued to hold out hope that he would be found alive. The US Coast Guard have led an exceptional search.

"This is now an incredibly difficult time for all the family. We would therefore request that we are given privacy to come to terms with today's decision."

On Friday the sister of one of the four missing yachtsmen had expressed disappointment at the US coast Guard's decision to call off the search if nothing was found by Saturday morning.

Relatives of the four missing yachtsmen in London. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA

Kay Coombes, who fought against the initial decision last Sunday to suspend the search, which was reversed in the face of public pressure and intervention by the UK government, said her only hope was that they would find her brother Steve Warren and the others before the deadline.

Captain Anthony Popiel, chief of response at the 1st Coast Guard District, said on Thursday that he had informed the families the operation would be suspended at midnight on Friday (5am Saturday BST) if there were "no further developments to indicate search efforts would locate the crew alive".

Coombes said: "I am a bit disappointed to be honest with you, hopefully they will find something today. Hope is all that we have got now."

Submerged hull of the Cheeki Rafiki.

The search was initially halted on Sunday morning when US officials said the crew would not have survived longer than 20 hours, only for it to resume on Tuesday after the men's friends and relatives accused the US of giving up too easily and started a petition that reached more than 230,000 signatures.

Searchers from the US coast guard, the US air force, the Canadian military and the British RAF, as well as a number of commercial vessels and volunteers, have combed more than 17,000 square miles of ocean in the hunt for the Cheeki Rafiki's crew. Popiel said that the decision to halt the search a second time had been made "after deepest consideration" and said the search team's thoughts and prayers were with the families. He added: "Our focus right now, however, remains with this very active and very dynamic search. We will always put forth utmost efforts to find and rescue those in peril at sea."