{"id":520,"date":"2011-07-08T16:01:37","date_gmt":"2011-07-08T20:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/?p=520"},"modified":"2011-07-09T16:17:47","modified_gmt":"2011-07-09T20:17:47","slug":"environmental-reasons-to-oppose-the-widening-of-the-channel-into-key-west-harbor-by-deevon-quirolo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/2011\/07\/08\/environmental-reasons-to-oppose-the-widening-of-the-channel-into-key-west-harbor-by-deevon-quirolo\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Reasons to Oppose the Widening of the Channel into Key West Harbor by DeeVon Quirolo"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Key West is considering another effort to widen the channel leading into Key West Harbor to accommodate larger cruise ships.\u00a0 Here are my comments on why this is not a good idea.\u00a0<\/em> DeeVon Quirolo dquirolo @gmail.com<\/p>\n

Updated July 9th, 2011<\/p>\n

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Despite the implementation of best efforts to prevent it, sedimentation created by the outright removal of habitat during the project to widen the channel\u00a0 heading into Key West Harbor will have immediate and long term negative impacts on nearby coral reefs such as Sand Key, Rock Key and Eastern Dry Rocks.<\/p>\n

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The amount of sediment that will be generated will be significant.\u00a0 Not the natural sediment that is stirred up during a storm, but by the significant amount of matter created by the outright removal and destruction of the bottom and loosening of sand, coral, and rock that will be suspended and carried by the outgoing tides to the reef.\u00a0\u00a0 There will be an immediate, complete loss of marine life to portions of the channel and harbor during the project.\u00a0 And there will be chronic re-suspended sediment whenever a large ship navigates the newly-excavated portions of the channel.<\/p>\n

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Whether by blasting or other means, no matter how carefully it is done and to what degree this bottom material is removed, it will generate significant turbidity and sediment that–depending on the currents– will be carried to the offshore coral reefs.\u00a0 The plume of sediment will cloud the water and prevent photosynthesis from occurring that reduces the conditions needed for healthy coral and marinelife.\u00a0 Key West Harbor is home to endangered sea turtles and dolphins. Their habitat will be degraded\u00a0 as well.<\/p>\n

The sediment will cover hard and soft corals such as Elkhorn and Staghorn, branching corals that are incapable of sloughing it off.\u00a0 Elkhorn and Staghorn corals have been placed on the U.S. Endangered Species list.\u00a0 These once common corals at Eastern Dry Rocks and other local reefs have experienced massive losses that have been documented here by Craig Quirolo.\u00a0 Corals need clear, clean, nutrient-free waters to thrive. The coating of sediment will prevent\u00a0 these and other corals from feeding under such conditions and they cannot survive. This will further reduce the few remaining endangered colonies in the area and should be a major reason why the harbor should not be widened.<\/p>\n

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Soft corals such as purple sea fans will also become stuffed with sediment.\u00a0 Significant losses of sea fans have already been documented at Key West-area coral reefs.\u00a0\u00a0 Sponges filter and clean the ocean and provide habitat for spiny lobster and other crustaceans.\u00a0 The sediment will overwhelm them as well.\u00a0\u00a0 Seagrasses, which are protected under state and federal law, and which stabilize the ocean bottom, will be removed, causing more sedimentation.<\/p>\n

If the dredging is done during the coral spawning period in August, it could do significant damage to corals that are attempting to propagate, as the new corals must settle on a clean surface to take hold and grow.\u00a0 Sediment would prevent that from happening.\u00a0 If permitted, no dredging should be allowed during coral spawning.<\/p>\n

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In short, dredging the channel leading to Key West Harbor to widen it for cruise ships would be a terrible idea for Key West’s coral reef ecosystem.\u00a0 It would further threaten endangered corals and sea turtles and destroy live bottom in existing areas adjacent to the channel and at the reef.\u00a0 This is a coral reef that is already under tremendous stress from other impacts and is showing the strain; there is little living coral coverage left and all that is there should be strongly protected.<\/p>\n

This dredge project is exactly the type of activity that is prohibited by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.\u00a0 The rules of the sanctuary explicitly prohibit dredging.\u00a0\u00a0 The additional protection of the U.S. Endangered Species Act designation of corals that will be destroyed add another layer of protection that should strengthen the ability to just say “NO” to a project that will destroy acres of living marine life.<\/p>\n

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The City of Key West is considering another effort to widen the channel leading into Key West Harbor to accommodate larger cruise ships.\u00a0 Here are my comments on why this is not a good idea.\u00a0 DeeVon Quirolo dquirolo @gmail.com Updated July 9th, 2011   Despite the implementation of best efforts to prevent it, sedimentation created … Continue reading Environmental Reasons to Oppose the Widening of the Channel into Key West Harbor by DeeVon Quirolo<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":528,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}