National Marine Fisheries Service

Rapid Assessments of Reef Sediment Depth and Biotic Stress Indicators at Port Everglades, Florida

2022

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; National Marine Fisheries Service; Southeast Regional Office

"The Port Everglades Deepening Project (PEDP) includes plans to deepen and widen the Port Everglades entrance channel and harbor (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) with construction expected to begin in the fall of 2024. The Port Everglades entrance channel crosses four major coral reef features generally oriented from north to south, and each of these features has different characteristics (such as depth and distance from shore). The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) led a field team to complete two sampling events to measure sediment depths on the major coral reef features surrounding the port at over 50 locations. Measurements of sediment depth are expected to be components of PDEPs Monitoring and Adaptive Management plans, and NMFS is collecting information to help establish a predredging baseline. Two sampling events were completed in winter 2017 (data collected in December 2017 and February 2018) and summer 2019 (data collected in June 2019), and more are anticipated before dredging begins. An additional objective of this work is developing and testing a rapid assessment protocol for examining the prevalence of biotic indicators associated with sediment stress on coral reef habitats before the commencement of dredging operations. Sediment samples were also collected to characterize the grain size and mineralogy."

Florida, coral, coral reef, sedimentation, sediment stress, sediment analysis, dredging

NMFS

SERO

FY2022 CRCP Project ID 30049; Project Title: NMFS Contract Positions to Support Fisheries Local Action Strategies (LAS) in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the USVI; Principal Investigator: Jocelyn Karazsia