Assessment and Catalogue of Puerto Rican Mooring Buoys WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE May 5, 2009 By Greg Coffey Eric Greer Ryan LaSante Brittany McNally Project Liaison: Dr. Craig Lilyestrom, Mr. Carlos Matos Project Advisors: Professor Karen Lemone and Professor Ingrid Shockey ABSTRACT The Department of Natural and Environmental Resources of Puerto Rico has installed over 270 mooring buoys in seagrass, coral, and mangrove regions with the anticipation that they will curb boating damage and allow these natural environments to recover. To streamline buoy management, our group constructed a Geographic Information System database. This contains data we gathered at each buoy concerning its exact GPS location, condition, the recovery of the environment it is protecting, and observations of boating trends within the region. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout the course of this project there have been many helpful individuals who have taken time from their busy lives to contribute to the success of this project. We would like to thank them for their contributions. To Craig Lilyestrom for his wealth of information and coordination of our entire project. To Carlos Matos for his exceptional aid with fieldwork, and continuous support with all aspects of our project. To Edwin and Maribel Rodriguez for the sharing of their photography, and help throughout our project. To the Oficina de Informática: Nora Alvarez, Victor Cuadrado Landrau, and Alberto Colón for their help with developing the GIS Database. To the Coral Rangers for their assistance with aquatic transportation. To our fellow colleagues from WPI: Kevin Vayda, Dan Cafferty, and Jason Carmichael for their willingness to share their survey results. iii AUTHORSHIP We, as a group, have researched and written this report. All sections of this paper were written through our combined efforts. We have all agreed upon this. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................ iii AUTHORSHIP ................................................................................................................................................ iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................ viii LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................................... viii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................. x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Coral Reefs .............................................................................................................................................. 3 2.1.1 Location and Extent ............................................................................................................................. 3 2.1.2 Importance ........................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1.3 Interactions with Surrounding Ecosystems ......................................................................................... 4 2.2 Seagrass .................................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2.1 Location and Extent ............................................................................................................................. 5 2.2.2 Importance ........................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2.3 Interactions with Surrounding Ecosystems ......................................................................................... 7 2.3 Environmental Damage .......................................................................................................................... 7 2.3.1 Hurricane Damage ............................................................................................................................... 8 2.3.2 Disease ................................................................................................................................................. 8 2.3.3 Boating Damage ................................................................................................................................... 9 2.4 Mooring Buoys ...................................................................................................................................... 10 2.4.1 Red Sea Case Study ............................................................................................................................ 12 2.4.2 Great Barrier Reef Study .................................................................................................................... 12 2.4.3 Potential Mooring Buoy Drawbacks .................................................................................................. 13 2.5 Stakeholders .......................................................................................................................................... 14 2.6 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................... 15 3.1 Catalogued the Buoys’ Locations .......................................................................................................... 15 3.2 Evaluated the Conditions of the Buoys ................................................................................................. 16 3.3 Assessed the Surrounding Ecosystems .................................................................................................. 16 3.4 Identified Boating Activities .................................................................................................................. 17 v 3.5 Analyzed Boat Traffic ............................................................................................................................ 17 3.6 Developed Geographic Information System (GIS) Database ................................................................ 18 3.7 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 19 4.1 Catalogue of the Buoys’ Locations ........................................................................................................ 19 4.2 Evaluation of the Conditions of the Buoys ............................................................................................ 28 4.3 Assessment of the Surrounding Ecosystems ......................................................................................... 30 4.4 Identification of Boating Activities ........................................................................................................ 32 4.4.1 Educational Outreach Interviews ....................................................................................................... 35 4.4.2 Aerial Surveys ..................................................................................................................................... 35 4.5 Analysis of Boat Traffic ......................................................................................................................... 38 4.6 General Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 39 4.7 Concluding Remarks .............................................................................................................................. 41 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 43 5.1 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 44 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 45 GLOSSARY.................................................................................................................................................... 48 APPENDIX A: MISSION STATEMENT ............................................................................................................ 50 APPENDIX B: PROPOSED TIMELINE ............................................................................................................. 51 APPENDIX C: PUERTO RICO BACKGROUND INFORMATION ....................................................................... 52