dredging & coral spawning

John Naughton jnaughto at honlab.nmfs.hawaii.edu
Fri Apr 17 16:24:41 EDT 1998


Susan:

As you know I've been in the middle of this whole dredge/coral spawn 
issue, in particular for the IOTA salvage project in Rota, CNMI.  The 
condition was based on information from Bob Richmond at U of Guam, Marine 
Lab.  He feels strongly that this is an important condition. As I recall, 
his justification is that high turbidity/suspended sediment in the water 
column will have an adverse impact on the ability of hard corals to spawn 
successfully.

I also would be very interested if anyone out there has a position on 
this subject.

John Naughton
NMFS, Honolulu
Phone:  808/973-2940
FAX:    808/973-2941    


On Fri, 17 Apr 1998, Susan Burr wrote:

> The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Island's (CNMI- Saipan) Coastal
> Resources Management office has a permit condition that requires all
> dredging operations to cease during and five days after the yearly hard
> coral spawning event.  They have recently been asked by a permittee to
> provide scientific justification for this permit condition.  The dredging
> operation in question is an archaeological excavation that will be using a
> suction dredger to remove sand and a clamshell dredger to remove boulders.
> The immediate site has approximately ten percent coral cover and the
> adjacent reef has 10-60 percent coral cover.  The site has a relatively
> strong longshore current and wave action is high.
> 
> Does anyone know of any citations to justify or refute this permit
> condition?  Is the CNMI's condition more or less stringent than other
> jurisdictions?  Should dredging operations be required to cease during the
> soft coral spawning as well?
> 
> Thanks for everyone's help.  You can reply directly to me at
> susan.burr at saipan.com.
>                     \\ \\\ |///  //
>                      \\ \\\|/// //
>                       \\  ~ ~  //
>                        (  @ @  )
> ---------------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo----------------
> |       Susan Burr                                                 |
> |       CNMI Division of Environmental Quality |
> |        PPP 171  Box 10000                               |
> |        Saipan, MP  96950-9504   USA            |
> |                                                                            |
> |        Phone:  670.234.1011                            |
> |        Fax:  670.234.1003                                  |
> |        E-mail:  susan.burr at saipan.com       |
> |                                                                           |
> |                                                         Oooo        |
>  --------------------------oooO-----------(  )-------
>                                          (  )             ( /
>                                         (  )           (_/
>                                        \_)
> 



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