11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

24-37
Restoration Of acropora Cervicornis At The Site Of The M/t Margara Grounding
Tom MOORE* 1 , Bruce GRAHAM* 2 , Sean GRIFFIN* 3 , Kevin KIRSCH 4 , Craig
LILYESTROM 5 , Michael NEMETH* 6
1 Restoration Center, NOAA, St. Petersburg, FL, 2 CSA International, Stuart, FL,
3 Lighthouse Technical Consultants, Aquadilla, Puerto Rico, 4 NOAA, St. Petersburg, FL,
5 Puerto Rico DNER, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 6 Lighthouse Technical Consultants,
Boqueron, Puerto Rico
The M/T MARGARA, a 228-m (748-ft) tanker went aground on coral reef formation on
27 April 2006. The impacted reef is located approximately 1 mile south-southeast of
Bahia de Tallaboa along the south coast of Puerto Rico. The coral reef feature supports a
relatively healthy epifaunal assemblage visually dominated by soft corals, sponges, and
hard corals. Rapid response by PRDNER, NOAA and the Responsible Party resulted in
the salvage and reattachment of over 10,000 hard and soft corals displaced during the
grounding.
A unique feature of the grounding location was the presence of a large thicket of
Acropora cervicornis which has been designated as Threatened under the Endangered
Species Act of 1972. Impact to the A. cervcornis thicket produced over 900 fragments
ranging in size from 7.7 to 23 cm (3 to 9in) that were available for reattachment.
The A. cervicornis restoration strategy utilized various techniques at four distinct
locations within the grounding site. Techniques included the reattachment of grouped A.
cervicornis fragments to 1) stainless-steel bolts projecting from pooled cement, 2) natural
coral rubble projecting from pooled cement, and 3) secured frame of plastic-coated wire
mesh. In all three reattachment techniques, fragments were secured using plastic cable
ties. Additionally, fragments were attached directly in cement and secured with epoxy at
some locations.
Over the first year the reattached fragments grew vigorously, formed multiple new
branches and generally had a high rate of survival. Branching fragments could be
utilized for transplantation within the grounding site and/or as a source of fragments for
additional reattachment locations. This talk will discuss initial results and lessons learned
concerning these new field-tested techniques for restoring A. cervicornis resources.
24-38
Survival Of Coral Recruits in Relation To Substrate Stability Within Ship
Grounding Sites.
Stuart FIELD* 1
1 University of Notre Dame, Perth, Australia
Ship groundings cause discrete, small scale disturbances with defined boundaries and are
characterised by a mosaic of disturbed areas varying in the extent of damage and the
stability of the remaining substrate. Following a disturbance resulting from a ship
grounding event, recovery of the coral community is dependent on the recruitment of new
individuals to the denuded substrate created as a result of the disturbance. In this study
juvenile corals were investigated for 24 months at four sites associated with ship
grounding sites adjacent to the Straits of Tiran, Egypt. The density of juveniles within
and adjacent to areas of disturbance were considered along with the diversity and size
distribution of the juvenile coral community at each site. This investigation has enabled a
greater understanding of early life history processes in the recovery of disturbed reefs.
Increased densities of juvenile corals were recorded in disturbed areas, supporting
findings of recruitment to artificial settlement tiles, however, there were also higher rates
of juvenile mortality in disturbed areas, particularly in areas with mobile rubble,
indicating that smothering and abrasion were likely causes of decreased survivorship in
these areas. However, these rates of recruitment and survivorship were variable across the
four sites investigated. These results suggest that while we can improve predictions of
recovery rates by defining the mosaic of substrate classifications that characterise a ship
grounding site, site-to-site variability in settlement and post-settlement mortality prevents
predictions based solely on these initial site surveys and long-term monitoring is needed
at each site to follow recovery over time.
Oral Mini-Symposium 24: Reef Restoration
24-39
Natural Resource Damage Assessment And Restoration in The National Park Service:
Coral Reef Vessel Grounding Case Studies in Biscayne National Park
Amanda BOURQUE* 1
1 Division of Resource Management, Biscayne National Park, Homestead, FL
Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) is a process that allows authorized resource
trustees to identify injured resources, recover damages from responsible parties, restore habitats
and resources to pre-injury/exposure conditions (“primary restoration”), and compensate the
public for the loss of ecological and/or visitor use services (“compensatory restoration”). The
National Park Service is authorized by several statutes to implement the NRDA process in
resource injury cases. Biscayne National Park (BISC) pursues damage recovery in vessel
grounding cases under the authority of the Park System Resource Protection Act (PSRPA, 16
USC 19jj). BISC is one of the largest marine parks in the National Park System, and protects
the northernmost Florida Keys, seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, clear bay waters, and over
twenty miles of the Florida reef tract. Submerged park resources holding significant ecological,
cultural, and economic value are frequently impacted by vessel groundings. BISC is unique
because it has the highest volume PSRPA cases in the National Park System, and these cases
arise from one type of resource injury (i.e. vessel groundings). This presentation will provide
an overview of how BISC applies the NRDA process in vessel grounding cases, with an
emphasis on those cases that involve coral reef resources. Injury assessment techniques, injury
classifications, restoration planning approaches, restoration alternatives for primary and
compensatory projects, monitoring protocols, environmental compliance, and policy solutions
will be discussed. Examples will be drawn from several BISC cases.
24-40
Coral Reef Metrics And Habitat Equivalency Analysis
Shay VIEHMAN* 1 , Steven THUR 2 , Greg PINIAK 1
1 Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, NOAA, Beaufort, NC, 2 Office of Ocean and
Coastal Resource Management, NOAA, Silver Spring, MD
When coral reefs held in United States public trust are injured by anthropogenic injuries such as
vessel groundings or oil spills, a natural resource damage assessment process is utilized to
quantify the resource loss and determine the amount of restoration required to make the public
whole from the injury. Habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) is used to equate resource losses
from the injury with benefits from the compensatory project. Ecosystem services are
represented in HEA using an indicator metric, typically coral cover for reef injuries. However,
depending on the injury and habitat, alternative approaches such as composite metrics
incorporating topographic complexity and other coral reef community members, or a resourcescale
approach utilizing size-frequency distributions may more comprehensively represent lost
services. We examine the robustness, flexibility, and application within HEA of these metrics
to predict complex and compound (larger scale) results from the original injury. Careful
selection of a metric appropriate to both the degree and extent of injury and of habitat type can
serve as a vital link between the damage assessment, recovery modeling, compensatory
calculations, and recovery monitoring.
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