Colonies of coral reattached
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Some 2,000 severed coral colonies off Honolulu International Airport's Reef Runway have been reattached by civilian divers, the Navy and state Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a joint statement yesterday.
The displaced coral colonies and colony fragments — some as large as cars — suffered substantial damage when the USS Port Royal went aground Feb. 5. The 9,600-ton cruiser was freed four days later.
"The contractors are making steady progress collecting and reattaching coral colonies," said Rear Adm. Joseph Walsh, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. "While that work continues, we are preparing for the next phase of work, removal of rubble from the seabed."
The work, which is being done under the supervision of state aquatic biologists, is part of one of the largest reef restoration projects ever undertaken in Hawai'i. Damage to the reef covers an area estimated to be up to 10 acres.
DLNR Director Laura H. Thielen said the state appreciates the Navy's commitment to minimizing further damage to the area in a timely manner.
She said the project objective is twofold: One, to remove the remaining rubble within the next four to six weeks. And two, to see if an equivalent reef acreage can be restored as a way to offset the damage caused by the Port Royal.
Thielen said the state will submit a bill, known as an admiralty claim, to the Navy for reimbursement of costs to repair and clean up the damaged area.
"Now, we can't grow a reef because it takes 100 years to grow a 100-year-old reef," she said. "But we have reef in Kane'ohe Bay that's being smothered by invasive algae. And if we don't remove it, it will all die."
"So we can go with that admiralty claim and seek funds to support removing invasive algae from that equivalent amount of reef, and bring it back to life," she said.
While the Reef Runway project is under way, Navy and state officials are asking the boating public to avoid the project area for safety reasons and to reduce the potential for further damage to the reef. The project area is marked by buoys, they said.
