Paul Allen's mega-yacht blamed for destroying coral reef

I wonder if anyone checks on the progress and end result to see what our money bought them ?

Actually there have been periodic checks and they've indicated that the repairs and reattachment's have worked quite well. The science appears to exist to repair and restore damaged reefs, it's just a very very very expensive task at this time. I would think the cost could be dramatically reduced.

Maybe a business opportunity is there.

Perhaps. The issue is someone able to pay. US Navy was able to. Paul Allen is able to if he's charged. Some governments can. But then the person who rents a catamaran and destroys reefs often is fined but it isn't collected.

Actually if you hit privately owned trees, you do pay. Same if you run off the road and destroy someone's yard or hit their house. Even if it's an accident.

I think tougher enforcement and the threat of fines has cut down on the indiscriminate anchoring within reefs. At least it's gotten people to think and increased awareness. Ultimately there will be a negotiation between Allen's insurance carrier and the local government and a settlement. If that then is used toward repairing the reef then I have no issue with it. If the fine is paid and the reef not repaired, I have a problem. It's just like any environmental remediation.

In the FL keys / Biscayne bay grass beds, Run aground in that stuff and the fines/rebuild cost will take you and your insurance to the cleaners.
I remembering air bagging (dry hull) boats to keep from bending another blade of grass. The boat was held by us or the national parks service till the NPS released it, days or months.
This was about 12+ years ago. No idea if they still are so hard on groundings still. I still warn my customers to take extra care traveling down there.

I can only guess how you replant sea grass.

Two recommendations from the Authority........
Maybe the Port Authority sees a business opportunity.

It does make one wonder what the fine represents, and how it will be used for repairing damages in these kinds of cases.

Maybe they could forgo the fine proper, and just bill him for the repair.

All that the locals need to do is tic Paul Allen off.
The money may not be any issue, just the way this pans out and further embarrasses his ship.
Tic him off and millions of dollars stops going to the island and it's businesses.

I am sure the ship did not mean to do any damage. His mantra and ships practice have very well records of good sea stewards, research and support.

I can imagine his resources already in positive motion.

On quick view, didn't notice anybody following the chain up to the ship. Just a very distant few frames at the very end. I may have missed it but was to bored to review it.
That was a few videos put together also.

Yes it's pretty dead. But if you look you can see where there is still live coral there. Plus all the other living stuff on the rocks.

It's not a pristine reef by any means. But it's still not a good thing.

I'd say the people who told them where to anchor should carry the vast majority of the blame.

The same people who told Zenith where to anchor and have told hundreds more.

Could some of that be silt covering the reef?

Doesn't look like it to me. Just looks like mostly dead coral on "live" rock.

Wow, that video shows one dead reef, but it could not have been all caused by that one chain. It looks like it's been that way for years, unless I've been misinformed by National Geographic specials with Jacques Cousteau.

There is a ton of live coral on that reef, it's just all small, and mostly encrusting. There are more live coral colonies on that reef than you would expect to find on a fully grown healthy photogenic reef, just because they would crowd each other out. I'll bet that this has been happening for years. Towards the end of the video everything is covered in calcium carbonate silt, but you can tell that isn't the regular state of that reef by the sponges, sponges wouldn't stay like that for years.

Branching and plating corals can absolutely be glued back down of they break or get knocked down. If they are lucky when they break they get wedged in and just encrust on and build a new foundation, if not they get washed off the reef and die in the shade or in the sand. It's part of the normal life cycle for most branching and plating stony corals to break every few decades and form new colonies around old ones, but if the reefs get scoured with anchor chains too often that can't happen.