May 26 <\/p>\n
With so many dredge projects being proposed on reefs around the world, here
\n is another reminder of just how negative the impact can be.<\/p>\n
The massive Army Corps of Engineers’ Deep Dredge of Port Miami has now been
\n ongoing for 18 months nearly non-stop (with several more to go). Not only
\n have the Army Corps failed to transplant a large number of
\n federally-protected staghorn corals (*Acropora cervicornis*) living within
\n the offshore dredging area, they have also produced copious amounts of silt
\n that has smothered acres of adjacent reef area outside where they claimed
\n would be impacted. We have documented multiple corals having been
\n improperly transplanted by their paid contractors, in some cases not even
\n bothering to use adhesive to reattach them. In other cases, corals that
\n were transplanted still wound up smothered to death due to their horizontal
\n attachment on boulders which collects falling silt on their tissue and
\n doesn’t allow for easy sloughing off.<\/p>\n
After our most recent health survey of several highly unusual elkhorn
\n corals (*Acropora palmata*) living on a coastal seawall along Fisher
\n Island’s marina here in Miami, we have decided to bring their plight
\n public. While staghorn is not particularly uncommon offshore Miami, elkhorn
\n is so extremely rare that is almost absent. It is quite possible that these
\n are the most ‘coastal’ of all of Florida’s elkhorn colonies… they are
\n literally growing along the shoreline in knee-deep water adjacent to a
\n marina and a wastewater treatment plant. The fact that they have persisted
\n for so long in man-made urban habitat is a testament to their resilience.
\n However, it is clear that over the past year and half of dredging, the
\n health of these colonies has declined precipitously. Coral Morphologic
\n proposes that these elkhorn corals, which are receiving the full brunt of
\n siltation stress, should be given special protection to ensure their
\n survival before the summer heat adds to their stress. Given that there are
\n multiple independent elkhorn branches as a result of past white pox die-off
\n (that caused them to become discontinuous sub-colonies), we propose that
\n they are ideal for in-situ mariculture in a coastal coral nursery here in
\n Miami where they can be carefully propagated into large enough numbers for
\n subsequent laboratory research and local reef restoration.<\/p>\n
Video of the elkhorn coral and improperly transplanted corals on Fisher
\n Island can be found here:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/coralmorphologic.com\/b\/2015\/05\/21\/fisher-island-corals-the-saga-of-the-deep-dredge-part-1-of-3<\/a><\/p>\n Stay tuned for Part 2 follows up with the fate of two different hybrid Cheers, May 26 With so many dredge projects being proposed on reefs around the world, here is another reminder of just how negative the impact can be. The massive Army Corps of Engineers’ Deep Dredge of Port Miami has now been ongoing for 18 months nearly non-stop (with several more to go). Not only have the … Continue reading Coral-List: Coral Morphologic presents “The Endangered Elkhorn Corals of Fisher Island & Miami’s Deep Dredge (Part 1 of 3)”<\/span>
\n fused-staghorn (*Acropora prolifera*) corals living alongside the elkhorn
\n corals on Fisher Island.<\/p>\n
\n Colin Foord
\n Coral Morphologic coralmorphologic@gmail.com via coral.aoml.noaa.gov <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"