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.

I think it's bad that people destroy reefs from anchoring etc. However, it has been going on since the advent of ships. If it's truly an accident I don't see why someone should pay. If you're driving down I-95 and get run off the road and hit 4 trees in a forest should you pay for them? And what does paying for it really fix...perhaps unless it's a major payment allowing for divers to re-attach coral...... accidents are accidents. Coral reefs are more damaged by pollution than anything, if they're in good clean water they'll repair and rebuild themselves. albeit at a slow pace.

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.

That's true when it comes to private property, but can't say a reef is private property. What was the condition of the reef prior to this? I've heard reports of it being mostly a dead reef. Also a cruise ship did the same thing there several years back when the Port Authority also gave them instructions to anchor there and the cruise ship only paid a $100k fine and nothing was done to the reef with the money.

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.

That coral looks pretty dead if you ask me. Yeah it has a lot of fish and stuff, but the coral itself looks pretty poor. There is a little damage to the coral, but nothing like the news stories would have you believe.

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.

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.