Multiple Small Vessel Groundings, PR and USVI (2004-2015)

Sea Ventures’ MRU has a long history of providing emergency reef restoration, monitoring, and marine debris removal in response to vessel groundings. Over the past 10 years, our team has responded to over 64 small vessel groundings and restored over 35,000 coral colonies at these grounding sites for NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration. The groundings were scattered throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, including the waters surrounding the outlying islands of Mona, Vieques, and Culebra.

The most recent response and restoration sites of these small vessel groundings are included in the figure below. Our team provided the vessel, equipment, scientists, and support personnel to conduct site mapping and pre-assessment surveys, coral triage, coral reattachment, and debris removal at the impact sites.

The U.S. Coral Reef Task Force recognized MRU’s Vice President Pedro Rodriguez for his “tireless efforts to mitigate the effects of small vessel groundings through effective and dedicated reef science” and for his “successful stabilization and restoration of thousands of dislodged corals in the Caribbean”.