[Coral-List] Call for Grey Literature on Anchor and Boat Grounding damage

[Dennis Hubbard]

Robert:

Unfortunately, I suspect that there is a rich gray literature on boat
groundings. I know there were several in the Keys back in the 70s (one of
them ironically, as I remember, being a U Miami research vessel  - should
be good monitoring there). Until the fines got heavy enough, many of the
southerly transiting tanker and reight fleet got in too close to get out of
the Gulf Stream (I suggest you contact the Keys Sanctuary program for those
- Gene Shinn and Harold Hudson probably also have information there). I
worked on a grounding on the south side of Mona (between the Dominican
Republic and Puerto Rico) in the 80s and observed a grave yard of other
grounded vessels. In that instance, there is an interesting story about the
Mona lighthouse involved. As I understand the scenario, the lighthouse was
moved landward to reduce the need for repairs due to aerosol damage. As a
result, it was difficult to see the light from a boat too close to the
reef, resulting in the increase in groundings. There was talk of moving it
back seaward (my client was willing to contribute significant funds toward
that purpose). In the end, the government of Puerto Rico who had been
collecting heavy fines and settlements (presumably, but not actually, for
restoration purposes) had already written grounding fines into their annual
budget. On Puerto Rico there was a huge *Acropora* restoration project
following a large grounding on the south coast (I tihnk Bill Precht may
bave been involved in that), I believe that Caroline Rogers was also
involved in a grounding assessment in the USVI and I remember NSF having to
deal with a boat that was ut u onto the reef around the time of Hurricanes
Irma and Maria. Presumably, there would be reports for all o  these - and I
have to assume that there are similar reports from other areas in the
western Atlantic as well.

Best,

Dennis

On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 11:33 AM Robert Mason via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Dear Coral-Listers,
>
> I am currently working on anchor damage and boat grounding impacts on
> coral reef benthos, using a systematic literature review and an ecosystem
> model. As part of the systematic literature review, I’d like to put out a
> call for suggestions of any Grey Literature (ie. not appearing in a
> scientific journal) dealing with anchor damage or boat collision impacts on
> coral reefs, including: theses, reports to government or business or
> not-for-profit organisations, working papers, white papers, and datasets.
> Anchor or boat collision impacts do not need to be the main topic of the
> literature item, but just have to feature somewhere in the text. Items that
> are in English or in any other language are of interest. If you do know of
> any relevant Grey Literature please get in touch with me at
> robert.mason1 at uqconnect.edu.au<mailto:robert.mason1 at uqconnect.edu.au>
>
> Warm regards,
>
> Robert
>
>
> Dr Robert Mason
> Postdoctoral Fellow
> Marine Spatial Ecology Laboratory
> ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
> School of Biological Sciences
> The University of Queensland
> St. Lucia, QLD, Australia.
>
>
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>


-- 
Dennis Hubbard
Chair, Dept of Geology-Oberlin College Oberlin OH 44074
(440) 775-8346

* "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
 Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"