Environmentally Friendly Aids to Navigation Buoy Moorings
Abstract
Aids to navigation (ATON) established and maintained by the United States Coast Guard
(USCG) negatively impact coral and a seagrass species listed as threatened under the
Endangered Species Act (ESA). These negative impacts are caused by physical contact
between the threatened species or the benthic environment surrounding them and the
ATON itself, the ATON’s mooring, or the temporary anchoring/mooring devices employed
by the USCG vessels installing and maintaining the ATON. These interactions constitute
a “take” under the ESA and are detrimental to the health and vitality of those species.
The USCG should explore practicable new ATON mooring technologies and installation
and maintenance procedures that eliminate or lessen negative impacts on the threatened
seagrass and coral species.
This paper focuses on USCG ATON impacts to threatened seagrass and coral species and
includes: a characterization and quantification of USCG ATON impact areas in critical
seagrass and coral habitats; and an analysis of novel (to the USCG) and more environmentally-friendly
commercial-off-the-shelf anchoring and mooring systems suitable for USCG ATON, including
an analysis of their installation and maintenance requirements and a cost comparison
between them and traditional ATON anchoring and mooring systems.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9633Citation
Slivinski, Luke (2015). Environmentally Friendly Aids to Navigation Buoy Moorings. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/9633.Collections
More Info
Show full item record
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Rights for Collection: Nicholas School of the Environment
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info