Abstract Summary
Primary and secondary restoration actions applied on a damage coral reef by ship grounding at Tanchacte Reef in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Coral reefs damaged by ship grounding reduces the resilience of these ecosystems and their natural recovery can take several decades if direct, active and immediate response actions are not applied. In 2016 an area of approximately 300m2 in the Tanchacte reef (Arrecifes de Puerto Morelos National Park, northern part of Quintana Roo State, Mexico) was damaged by ship grounding.The National Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture of Mexico implemented primary restoration actions such as the rescue of still alive coral fragments of Acropora palmata, their selection by diameter (small < 10 cm, medium < 50 cm, large >50cm), the return to the original position of colonies of massive coral (Pseudodiploria and Orbicella genus) turned around by the impact, fixation in the reef matrix, keeping the branches on their original position, of large fragments of A. palmata, the small and medium fragments were sheltered in plastic crates and placed in weak tidal current sites for their later handling and finally the stabilization of rubble that represented a potential danger for contiguous colonies not damaged by the accident. The secondary actions included: cementing the massive coral colonies secured during the primary actions with the use of concrete and the surrounding rubble, sealing of tissue lesions with epoxy plasticine to avoid possible diseases, infection of parasites or colonization of algae in the exposed skeleton, building a welded mesh nursery in order to fix the small and medium fragments of A. palmata allowing the fragments to grow protected from the sediment. Two years after the incident the colonies from the nursery grew enough to be outplanted to the impacted site starting the recovery process of the lost structure. Monitoring the site will allow to evaluate the efficiency of these restoration techniques.
