NOAA’s Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has rescued nearly 200 coral fragments dislodged by a pair of vessel groundings at Cheeca Rocks and Cannons Patch sanctuary preservation areas in the Upper Keys. The incidents set off emergency responses that will ultimately restore the injured corals.

When a wayward shrimp boat dragged across Cheeca Rocks Sanctuary Preservation Area at 3 a.m. on April 5, the vessel’s 9-foot draft dislodged approximately 150 corals. The boat came to rest in chest-deep water near the Islander Resort in Islamorada, where Regional Response Coordinator Lisa Symons worked with the U.S. Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to assess potential pollution and physical injury to sanctuary resources. After fuel was removed from the grounded shrimper, Symons and the sanctuary’s science team went below to begin rescue.

“When the vessel went through, it split the coral heads in half, and all of the live tissue was sitting facedown in the sand,” said Dr. Andy Bruckner, a coral expert and the sanctuary’s chief scientist. “Even though we got there quickly, there was already some tissue loss. We didn’t want to stress them even further, so we collected the larger pieces and secured them in a safe area on site, and will return in seven days to see if the tissue loss continued or if it stopped.”

Smaller fragments from the Cheeca Rocks site were sent to Mote Marine Laboratory in Summerland Key for safekeeping. “This species is of great interest for future restoration activities because of their high resilience to elevated temperatures and high survival in turbid habitats,” Bruckner said. “Mote will figure out which genetic strains we have, begin testing their tolerance to stressors, and get the most resilient strains into the production system, propagating them for use in coral restoration.”

The shrimp boat is expected to be removed by Monroe County contractors under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s derelict and abandoned vessel program.

A few weeks earlier, a 50-foot sailboat grounded off Key Largo, but not before tearing through corals at Cannons Patch Sanctuary Preservation Area within the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and the sanctuary. Symons, Bruckner, and a joint team from John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection collected approximately 25 large corals that had been displaced and carefully stabilized the pieces.

Since corals like to grow on hard-bottom surfaces, the team had a challenge to overcome when re-planting the dislodged corals. “The vessel crushed many of the big coral heads,” Bruckner explained. “You can’t reattach them within the keel scar because of all the unconsolidated materials left behind where they broke off. We had to find several patches of nearby  hardbottom where they could be resecured.” One large lobe was relocated 25 meters from the injury and secured with cement.

These incidents come at a cost to the sanctuary and the ecosystem, and the next step is for Symons to work with Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection staff and the respective agency attorneys to present a claim to the responsible party for either additional restoration funds or a civil penalty. She will remain on the case until litigation is complete.

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