Abstract Summary
The counter-balancing factors of value of coral reef habitat and threats to the habitat serve to emphasize the need to address injuries to coral reefs whenever possible at whatever scale necessary. For the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), this is as much of a driver for action as the legal requirements for addressing injuries to natural resources. However, it is the inherent variability and complexity of coral reef structure that can present challenges to the approaches used to address injuries and restore ecological services following grounding incidents. One such incident involved the impacts caused by a large steel Aid To Navigation (ATON)buoy that broke loose from its mooring and drifted across a patch reef near Cheeca Rocks Reef. Through abrading, fracturing, and dislodging, the dragging of its anchor chain caused numerous and variable injuries to coral along its 65-meter track, including dislocating entire colonies and breaking others into pieces. To avoid further tissue loss and mortality, a stabilization or re-attachment restoration alternative was a preferred alternative. However, given the diversity, the rugosity, and the complex structural nature of the reef, there was a very high likelihood of secondary injuries associated with cementing colonies within the injury track. Therefore, the alternative chosen was to use coral fragments from the injury area to extend the reef area by creating new habitat in an adjacent hard-bottom area. Using a variety of techniques, this approach was aimed at recreating an approximation of the physical variability and rugosity, to the extent practicable, of the habitat and structure that was injured. Structure with vertical variability was created in as natural a looking fashion as feasible. This was accomplished using only products that would be available from a typical building supply store. This approach for restoration is fairly low technology, scalable, economical, and could be applied equally in developed or developing areas.
