When I said deep ocean, I didn't mean to refer to the depths of the water, but the distance from the shore. "Deep ocean" I thought could refer to waters very far from any shore, even if right there there is an underwater something that makes the water more shallow... My mistake, I only read nautical stuff.

If they were outside their zone, again, why is their zone near civilians? Surely there are areas in the sea way out in the middle of nothing where they can do these kinds of maneuvers. If it takes days to get there then don't take the civilians along, take them for stuff that isn't as risky.

And I do agree that things look worse when the US, who's so busy telling the rest of the world how to live, screws something like this up. But I also agree that it doesn't necessarily MAKE it worse, just LOOK worse.