dredging & coral spawning
John Naughton
jnaughto at honlab.nmfs.hawaii.edu
Fri Apr 17 16:24:41 EDT 1998
Susan:
As you know I've been in the middle of this whole dredge/coral spawn
issue, in particular for the IOTA salvage project in Rota, CNMI. The
condition was based on information from Bob Richmond at U of Guam, Marine
Lab. He feels strongly that this is an important condition. As I recall,
his justification is that high turbidity/suspended sediment in the water
column will have an adverse impact on the ability of hard corals to spawn
successfully.
I also would be very interested if anyone out there has a position on
this subject.
John Naughton
NMFS, Honolulu
Phone: 808/973-2940
FAX: 808/973-2941
On Fri, 17 Apr 1998, Susan Burr wrote:
> The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Island's (CNMI- Saipan) Coastal
> Resources Management office has a permit condition that requires all
> dredging operations to cease during and five days after the yearly hard
> coral spawning event. They have recently been asked by a permittee to
> provide scientific justification for this permit condition. The dredging
> operation in question is an archaeological excavation that will be using a
> suction dredger to remove sand and a clamshell dredger to remove boulders.
> The immediate site has approximately ten percent coral cover and the
> adjacent reef has 10-60 percent coral cover. The site has a relatively
> strong longshore current and wave action is high.
>
> Does anyone know of any citations to justify or refute this permit
> condition? Is the CNMI's condition more or less stringent than other
> jurisdictions? Should dredging operations be required to cease during the
> soft coral spawning as well?
>
> Thanks for everyone's help. You can reply directly to me at
> susan.burr at saipan.com.
> \\ \\\ |/// //
> \\ \\\|/// //
> \\ ~ ~ //
> ( @ @ )
> ---------------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo----------------
> | Susan Burr |
> | CNMI Division of Environmental Quality |
> | PPP 171 Box 10000 |
> | Saipan, MP 96950-9504 USA |
> | |
> | Phone: 670.234.1011 |
> | Fax: 670.234.1003 |
> | E-mail: susan.burr at saipan.com |
> | |
> | Oooo |
> --------------------------oooO-----------( )-------
> ( ) ( /
> ( ) (_/
> \_)
>
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