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SOUTHEAST FLORIDA CORAL REEF INITIATIVE Maritime Industry and Coastal Construction Impacts Workshop: A Study to Identify and Evaluate Existing and Emerging Innovative Technologies for Coastal Construction May 24-25 2006 PUBLIC COMMENTS ON DAY 2
Thomas J. Goreau All the presentations at the Workshop focused on the old, expensive, and environmentally destructive marine technology that has caused the destruction of almost all the coral reefs of Southeast Florida. The only good coral reefs now remaining in Southeast Florida are in the only major stretch of Broward beach that has never been “renourished” with dredge-fill. All the other shallow coral reefs were buried and killed by dredge-fill material eroded from the “renourished” beaches. This reef, the only healthy reef in North America that can be swum to from the beach, is full of threatened species and ancient corals, is entirely unprotected and has no management plan, but is imminently threatened by a dredging plan that has been approved by almost every federal, state, and county agency with any jurisdiction over such projects. Because all the other coral reefs that used to protect the beaches were virtually eradicated after previous dredging projects, the “renourished” beaches are far more vulnerable to erosion, setting in place the endless cycle of demands to re-“renourish” the vanishing beaches (some now for the third or fourth time), which is now exhausting the last available local sources of dredgeable sand. It is obvious that the old strategies have failed repeatedly, to the vast economic benefit only for those selling the same beach over and over and over (and in some cases yet over) again, and to the cost of the beaches, fisheries, diving, and quality of life of residents and visitors. It is clear that completely new approaches are needed to keep the sand on the beaches, prevent erosion, and mitigate the environmental damage that has already been done, in order to kick the habit of endless dredge-dump-washaway cycles we have been addicted to for the last 30 to 40 years. Despite the stated goals of the workshop, the technologies presented were at best marginal improvements the same old technology that has devastated the reefs of Southeast Florida. Not only are these the worst environmental alternatives, they are the costliest. When the organizers were formally asked if genuinely new or innovative technologies that could solve these problems by being far less environmentally damaging and cheaper could be presented to the meeting, they chose not to allow it. We only saw more of the traditional cozy relationship between those using destructive methods and the federal, state, and county agencies that are supposed to “regulate” them for public benefit, dressed up in the latest jargon, making a mockery of its mandate to identify new innovative alternatives to current marine engineering practices. This leaves no way to effectively communicate information about superior and cheaper innovative new methods except via public comment for the formal record. The best available, most environmentally beneficial, and the cheapest technologies should be used! The innovative, new, cheaper, and more environmentally sound alternatives that were not allowed to be presented at the workshop include Biorock® technology for shore protection, reef and fisheries restoration, and mitigation of past damage, and Seadozer® technology for keeping sand on the beaches without traditional dredging damage. Biorock technology is the only method of mitigation and shore protection that grows a living reef of any size or shape, on which corals grow 3-5 times faster than normal, heal from breakage more than 20 times faster, survive severe environmental stresses like high temperatures and sedimentation 16-50 times more than adjacent reefs, greatly increase coral recruitment, greatly increase fish and shellfish populations, and create award winning ecotourism attractions. Biorock reefs have been shown in the Maldives to turn severely eroding beaches into 50 feet of beach growth in a few years, at a fraction of the cost of concrete or rock breakwaters that would have increased sand scour and erosion and provided no ecological, fisheries, or tourism benefits. There is no limit to the size or shape of Biorock reefs, which can provide vastly more hiding spaces for fish and lobster than natural reefs, and produce breakwaters made of natural limestone that grow stronger every day (up to three times stronger than Portland cement) and are self-repairing after physical damage (from storms or boat groundings), unlike any other marine construction material. Biorock reefs are real growing coral reefs (or oyster reefs in cooler waters) that should not be confused with artificial reefs made of concrete and other un-natural materials that crack, corrode, rust, and weaken with age, and on which all transplanted corals will die as soon as the water gets too hot or polluted. Biorock reefs keep corals and reef organisms alive in places where they would die, and allow new reefs to be grown in just a few years in places where natural recovery is now impossible. Seadozer technology is the first dredge that blows sand along the bottom, using highly directional water jets, instead of sucking it. It uses no pumps, cutters, pipes, transport barges, anchors, or chains, and can do this in very shallow water where no other dredge can operate. It moves more sand at less cost and causes far less turbidity. It is capable of sweeping the clean, well-sorted sand lost from the beaches right back, maintaining the beach without the need for importing material in many places. Much or most of the sand that was dredged and dumped on the beaches in Hollywood and Dania in the last year has already been lost from the beach, creating a whole new chain of offshore sand bars and smothering reefs and hardground. Not only can this sand not be recovered with conventional dredging methods, the sand itself was full of fine grained mud that has made the water opaque and smothered corals offshore. From the air this “renourished” beach sand south of Port Everglades looks grey/black and the water offshore is murky, in sharp contrast to white sand and clear water of the beach on the other side of the channel where the beach has never been “nourished”. If Seadozer technology was used there, the good clean sand could be easily pushed back onto the beach, and the only good coral reef left in North America that can be swum to from the beach, which lies just offshore, would be saved from destruction by the unwise, unnecessary, and extremely costly dredge-fill plan to “nourish” this naturally growing beach protected by Southeast Florida’s last healthy nearshore reef, and set in motion the same destructive cycle that has killed healthy reefs, fisheries, and beaches everywhere else in the region. When I was nine years old I watched the coral reefs I had learned to swim and dive in totally destroyed by dredging, and since have seen the same process all over the world. Must we destroy the last bits now left before we learn to be smarter? More information about these new and innovative methods to preserve beaches, restore reefs, mitigate past damage, and protect the shoreline at far less cost than the destructive practices highlighted at the MICCI Workshop can be found in the attached materials. For more information about the last good nearshore reefs of Southeast Florida and some of the threats to them please go to: http://globalcoral.org/reef_protection_in_broward_count.htm or search on “Broward” at www.globalcoral.org |
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