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

[Stephen C Jameson]

Dear Adam,

Thanks for the coral-list note regarding:

>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.

For a review of the effects of diver, dive boat, and anchor damage - and 
quantitative data from the Egyptian Red Sea see:

Jameson SC, Ammar MSA, Saadalla E, Mostafa HM, Riegl B (1999) A coral 
damage index 
and its application to diving sites in the Egyptian Red Sea.  Coral Reefs 
Special Issue on 
The Science of Coral Reef Management, Coral Reefs 18(4):333-339





Best regards,

Dr. Stephen C. Jameson, President
Coral Seas Inc. - Integrated Coastal Zone Management
4254 Hungry Run Road, The Plains, VA  20198-1715  USA
Office:  703-754-8690, Fax:  703-754-9139
Email:  sjameson at coralseas.com
Web Site:  www.coralseas.com