request for assistance

[Dyoulgerov, Milen]

Dear Coral List Members,

I am writing to request information on ship groundings and/or ship =
anchorings that have damaged coral reefs anywhere in the world. I am =
requesting this information as justification for a proposal to uniformly =
depict coral reefs, and possibly marine protected areas, on navigational =
charts.

My office, the International Program Office of the National Ocean Service =
of NOAA, is preparing a proposal to the International Hydrographic =
Organization for the adoption of a specification requiring uniform =
mandatory depiction of coral reefs and, possibly marine protected areas. =
In order to build a large support base for the proposal we hope to be =
able to present as many examples as possible from the Caribbean region =
(outside of the US) of coral reef damage due to ship groundings/salvage =
and ship anchoring. Examples from other parts of the world will also be =
most helpful.

The basic data that we need is some or all of the following:
- place/time of the incidents,
- name/size of the ship (if available),
- area/extend of the damage (anecdotal or, even better, environmental and =
economic assessment), and
- remarks on the causes of the incidents.
At the end of this message I am attaching an example of data on ship =
anchoring that we have obtained for the U.S. I will be very grateful for =
whatever elements of similar data that you can forward to me.

Thank you very much for your assistance,

Milen Dyoulgerov
Marine Affairs Specialist
International Program Office
National Ocean Service
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Year	   Vessel	Type		        Anchoring Site		Remarks

1994	   MANA	Panamanian    West FG Bank	Reef or protected area
			Freighter	      nodule terrace	not indicated on chart
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