A mooring system would have to be stable enough to secure large 

 dive and charter boats in moderately rough seas and designed in a manner 

 to prevent collisions between the moored vessels. This would result in 

 destruction of portions of the sea floor but could reduce anchor damage 

 substantially to the reef. Observations in Biscayne Monument have 

 noted some concentrated damage to adjacent coral areas, as in the 

 case of designated anchoring zones. 



If the marine sanctuary is not adequately patrolled, this type of 

 regulation could cause conflicts among users. Although not prohibitively 

 expensive, mooring systems are costly and their purchase and installation 

 would have to be budgeted by Sanctuary management. The relatively small 

 Fore Reef area may not be large enough to place enough buoys to accommodate 

 the number of potential boats and buoy placement itself could be damaging 

 to the coral . 



Periodic relocation of the anchoring zone of buoys to allow 

 impacted areas to recover could also be used to minimize the concentration 

 of damage in localized areas. This approach however has not been successful 

 at the Buck Island National Monument in the Virgin Islands. Park Service 

 officials indicate that rotating buoy location is not viable there. Coral 

 growth is too slow to make reasonable rotating times feasible. 



4. Require the use of sand-anchors under all options. 



Grapple hooks and other non-sand-bearing anchors are particularly 

 damaging to coral. Prohibition of grapple-type anchors is a consideration 

 because of the damage from such anchors used by divers in the Looe Key 

 area. A change to sand anchor would encourage anchoring in sand areas 

 only but would not solve all anchor associated problems. There is also 

 some doubt if this is a workable regulation due to the type of enforcement 

 it would require. 



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