[Coral-List] Can You Quantify Anchor or Bottom Paint Damage to Coral Reefs?

[Adam Saphier]

My name is Adam Saphier and I am working for the Coral Reef Alliance on a
project that is trying to get dive operators to act more environmentally
friendly to coral reefs. To make our argument more persuasive, I am looking
for quantitative data that describes the damage caused by dive boats from
these sources:
1) Anchor Damage - I am looking for documentation of how much reef is
damaged from an anchor and chain being dropped on top of it; e.g. data that
might read like: the distribution of coral reef destruction caused when a 10
pound galvanized steel anchor with 15 feet of chain is dropped on reef is
bell shaped with a mean of 2 square meters of reef, with 2 standard
deviations in each direction amounting to 1 square meter and 3 square meters
of damage, respectively.
2) Bottom Paint Damage - How much damage does toxic anti-fouling bottom
paint do to reef? How much damage does biodegradable anti-fouling paint do
to reef? E.g. data that might read like: standard toxic anti-fouling bottom
paint erodes from the bottom of a boat into ocean water in 1 year and each
gallon settles on and destroys an aggregate amount of 1 cubic centimeter of
reef, while a similar amount of biodegradable paint only destroys 1 cubic
milimeter of reef.

Please let me know if you have any pertinent information or if you have
suggestions of where I might be able to find such data. Thank you for your
help and feel free to call me at the number below.

Regards,

Adam
_________________________________
Adam Saphier
The Coral Reef Alliance
417 Montgomery Street, Suite 205
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone 415.834.0900 x 319
Fax 415.834.0999
asaphier at coral.org
www.coral.org