Abstract Summary
On or around January 12-14, 2016 the M/V Tatoosh, a Cayman Island Flagged 303 ft. pleasure craft, caused extensive injury to coral reef habitat in shallow water 13-17 m depth in the West Bay Coral Reef Replenishment Zone off Seven-Mile Beach, Grand Cayman. The injury was caused by the deployed anchor chain of the vessel coming into direct contact with the reef. The total estimated area of impact (injury to both reef structure and biotic components) from the anchor chain of the M/V Tatoosh is 1,156 m2. These impacts were caused by repeated contact of the anchor chain with the living reef and substrate. Level I injuries (highly impacted) were areas where the reef structure has been lost or severely diminished and where most biota was crushed, fractured, dislodged, or buried. Level II injuries included areas of reef where devastation was not complete and consisted of toppled, dislodged, fractured, and overturned colonies, minimal structural injury, and abundant striations and abrasions to reef building organisms and/or reef framework. More than 1,000 dislodged and fractured colonies were located and salvaged by divers in the days and weeks following the incident. With the help of volunteers these corals were cached in crates adjacent to the injury. In total, 1,290 corals were subsequently reattached to the injured reef during emergency restoration operations. During the baseline post-restoration construction surveys 75 experimental (relocated) corals and 75 control corals on an adjacent, uninjured reef-spur were tagged for follow-up, long-term efficacy monitoring of the restoration effort. The six-month monitoring event revealed that 96% of the experimental corals survived the incident and subsequent relocation and reattachment. These results were invariant with the control corals which showed a 97% survivorship during the same period. We just completed in 2018, the second year of follow-up monitoring. These results show that 89% of the transplanted corals are still alive compared to 93% of the controls. These high survivorship rates are directly related to the rapid injury response performed by both the trustee and responsible party in the wake of the incident.
