[Coral-List] Vessel grounding stabilization and coral relocation

[Robert Bourke]

Greg;
	"Not worrying about the engineer" is one of the key reasons why many artificial reefs and reef-repairs have a very high long term failure rate.  If your concrete (not "cement") repairs have been successful, that's terrific, but passing on generic information about reef repairs without a specific understanding of the site conditions is a sure recipe for eventual failure.  The type of concrete and mix are also important considerations, as many literature citations can attest.  If we are to act as stewards of our reef environment it is important that we take a thoughtful and pragmatic approach to these issues.

Bob Bourke
Environmental Scientist
Oceanit

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Challenger [mailto:gchallenger at msn.com] 
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2012 4:33 AM
To: Robert Bourke
Cc: thaddeus nicholls; coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Vessel grounding stabilization and coral relocation

I wouldn't worry about the engineer.  If corals were present at the site prior to the grounding, cement is stronger than the limestone.  Ive used cement in about 40 groundings without a problem (or an engineer),  although the engineer could tell you if you need to stabilize large pieces at all given depth and significant wave height

Greg Challenger

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 11, 2012, at 7:43 PM, "Robert Bourke" <rbourke at OCEANIT.COM> wrote:

> Thaddeus;
> A good place to begin reviewing techniques used for re-stabilization of shattered coral reef substrate would be "Coral Reef Restoration Handbook" edited by W. Precht.    A primary factor governing your choice of methods will be the wave and current energy regime of your specific site.  As you appear knowledgeable in the biological side of the design equation, I suggest you contact a coastal engineer with experience in wave energy and stability calculations before making too much progress along any particular design path..
> 
> Bob Bourke
> Environmental Scientist
> Oceanit
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of thaddeus nicholls
> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 2:45 AM
> To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Subject: [Coral-List] Vessel grounding stabilization and coral relocation
> 
> Greetings Coral Listers, 
> I have been presented with a project that involves restabilization of rubble and coral head (up to 1m dia) relocation after a vessel grounding.  My personal coral reef experience has been primarily associated with ecosystem health and monitoring rather than rubble stabilization and coral head relocation, and was hoping that some of you could point me in the direction of some good literature/references/methods for performing such tasks.  The work statement discusses using rebar and concrete for some of the work (which seem like reasonable methods), however I would like to review other alternative methods as well, if any.  Thanks for your time, hope to hear from some of you soon.
>  
> Thaddeus Nicholls
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