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Establishing a Protocol for Coral Reef Damage Assessment for the Turks and Caicos Islands

Establishing a Protocol for Coral Reef Damage Assessment for the Turks and Caicos Islands. By: Judith Campbell & Tatum Fisher. Objective. To develop a standardized protocol for assessing coral reefs damaged by vessel grounding and/or anchoring. Recorded Incidents of Grounding in TCI.

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Establishing a Protocol for Coral Reef Damage Assessment for the Turks and Caicos Islands

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  1. Establishing a Protocol for Coral Reef Damage Assessment for the Turks and Caicos Islands By: Judith Campbell & Tatum Fisher

  2. Objective • To develop a standardized protocol for assessing coral reefs damaged by vessel grounding and/or anchoring.

  3. Recorded Incidents of Grounding in TCI Sea Eagle (2003) Exodus (2000) * Trouvadore (1841) * P * Mary of the Star (1998) * Caravel/Molasses Reef Wreck (1513) Solo (1993) * Benfield (1998) * Opi (2001) Champlain (2003) * Jasper Orange(1980s) * HMS Endymion (1790)

  4. Recorded Incidents of Grounding in TCI • 1513 Caravel West Caicos • 1790H.M.S Endymion Great Sand Cay • 1841 Trouvadore East Caicos • 1980s Jaspeur Orange Salt Cay • 1993 Solo Grand Turk • 1998 Mary Star of the Sea West Caicos • 1998 Benfield Grand Turk • 2000 Exodus Providenciales • 2001 Ninkulhe 5 Providenciales • 2001 Opi Grand Turk • 2003 Champlain Grand Turk • 2003 Sea Eagle Providenciales

  5. Impact on grounding incidents on the reefs • Scarifications • Breakage of a few coral heads

  6. Impact on grounding incidents on the reefs • Toppling of several coral heads • Crushing of reef crest

  7. Main Issues • Previously reef assessment has been sporadic. • Wide rage of assessments methods have been used and have resulted in varied valuations • Legal personnel do not understand how we arrive at the figure for compensation, and are reluctant to prosecute. • Boaters and visiting yacht men are negligent due to the absence of precedence.

  8. Legal Basis for Damage Assessment and Restoration • Fisheries Ordinance Part III, Section 10 (1 & 2) • (1) No person shall, ……. use any explosive, noxious or other substance or any device or thing potentially harmful to marine life to remove, dissolve, shift or in any way disturb any coral, sea oats, sand, rock or other substance forming part of the sea bed or any wreck within the fishery limits. • (2) Any person who contravenes any provision of this regulation shall be guilty of an offence.

  9. Legal Basis for Damage Assessment and Restoration • National Park Regulations Section 8, 3 (1c) • (1) The following are prohibited within all national parks– (c) the destruction of, or damage or injury to, any animal or plant; • National Park Regulations Section 8, 13 • (4) The court before which any person is convicted of an offence under this regulation may order- (b) that the person so convicted pay the cost of repairing any damage to a national park, nature reserve, sanctuary or area of historical interest caused by the commission of such offence.

  10. Results of Previous Assessments

  11. Damage Assessment Protocol Should provide the framework for determining: • What resources have been injured, • What is the loss to the public, • How can the resources be restored, • What type and amount of restoration is appropriate.

  12. The Protocol • Pre-assessment • Restoration Planning • Economic Assessment of Damages

  13. 1. Pre-assessment • Gather facts of the incident • Name of Vessel • Description of the vessel • Vessel registration information • Captain/ Owners name and contact info • Point of departure and intended destination • Time of grounding and events surrounding grounding • Mark the beginning and end of grounding site with surface buoy • Gather physical evidence • GPS coordinates of grounding site • Water depth at grounding site

  14. Pre-assessment cont’d • Determine the natural resources and services that are, or likely to have been, injured as a result of the incident; • Identify potential restoration actions relevant to the expected injuries; • Determine potential assessment procedures to evaluate the injuries and define the appropriate type and scale of restoration for injured natural resources and services.

  15. 2. Restoration Planning • Injury Assessment • To quantify the degree of injury – expressed in terms of percent mortality; proportion of a species, community, or habitat affected. • To quantify the spatial extent of injury – the total area injured. • To determine temporal extent of injury – expressed as the total length of time that the natural resource and/or service is adversely affected. • Restoration Selection & Implementation • Selecting appropriate restorative action • Emergency restoration • Restoration implementation • Monitoring programme

  16. 3. Economic Assessment of Damages To estimate the amount of money to be sought as compensation from the responsible party, for the injury resulting in the damage to the reefs. • Restoration cost (Implementation and completion of restoration project) • Compensatory restoration for interim loss of services. • All emergency responses • Injury assessment • Preparation of the damage assessment report • Long-term scientific monitoring studies

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