T/V Port Stewart, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico (2009)

In 2009, the T/V Port Stewart, a 176-m tanker carrying seven million gallons of oil, grounded on a coral reef near the Yabucoa Channel off the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico. The 500-m² affected area included a hard bottom of underlying limestone supporting hard and soft corals and numerous benthic invertebrates. Under contract to Polaris Applied Sciences, Inc., the MRU team provided vessel, equipment, and diver support to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) restoration team. We were responsible for emergency reef restoration, monitoring, and reporting efforts. Emergency restoration tasks included rescuing detached hard and soft corals, removing and disposing of gross bottom paint contamination, restoring site rugosity with limestone boulder rubble, and reattaching corals following site stabilization and the reattachment of structural features.

Approximately 1,004 colonies of 30 cnidarian taxa were transplanted and included 841 colonies of 18 scleractinian species, 80 colonies of threatened staghorn coral, 17 colonies of 3 hydrocoral species, and 66 colonies of 8 octocoral species. Our MRU team initially identified, counted, photographed, and classified these colonies by size and assessed their condition. The corals were replanted to artificially constructed structures made of a mixture of carbonate rocks, concrete, and rebar. Individual structures were geo-referenced, identified, and tagged with identification numbers for future relocation. Also, several replicate 1-m² plots of the transplanted corals were permanently marked for future monitoring.