By James Risley From Geek Wire

Earlier this year, Seattle billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s yacht was blamed for destroying nearly 14,000 square feet of protected coral reef in the Cayman Islands. Vulcan, Allen’s investment company, announced today that they will help pay for rehabilitating the reef.

According to a joint statement from Vulcan and the Cayman Islands’ Department of Environment, emergency restoration work on the reef will begin on March 1 with financial help from Vulcan. In fact, Vulcan has already contracted Polaris Applied Sciences to work with the department on some of the most time-sensitive tasks.

“The DoE and Paul G. Allen are deeply committed to ocean health and conservation,” the statement reads. “Both the DoE and Vulcan have worked hard to ensure that this agreement reflects the best international standards for restoration of coral habitats.”

The damage was done when Allen’s 303-foot yacht, the Tatoosh, dragged an anchor through the reef. Initial news reports claimed that the yacht damaged 14,000 square feet of reef, but a statement from Vulcan said “media reports are greatly exaggerated.”

However, the yacht crew quickly worked to remove the damaging anchor and Vulcan has cooperated with authorities. Now, Vulcan and the DoE are working to clear damaged reefs, recreate lost structural elements and reattach still-living coral that was separated in the accident.

Allen’s philanthropic contributions to wildlife conservation and environmental causes are well documented. The Paul G. Allen Ocean Challenge, in fact, aims to find different approaches to curbing ocean acidification that destroys coral reefs.

After restoration plans are completed, the DoE will assume control of monitoring the ongoing success of the reef.

James Risley is a technology writer living in Seattle. He’s written for the Medill News Service and helped build small, news-focused web tools for covering transportation and politics. He recently earned his graduate degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

IMAGES:
Paul Allen’s Tatoosh. Photo via Anton Porsche/Flickr
Paul Allen

For more on this story go to: http://www.geekwire.com/2016/paul-allens-vulcan-to-pay-for-reef-restoration-after-mega-yacht-mishap-despite-exaggerated-claims/

Joint statement from Cayman Islands Department of Environment and Vulcan Inc

Coral Restoration Work to Begin on Tuesday (Mar 1)

The Department of Environment (DoE) and Vulcan Inc., on behalf of Paul G. Allen, the owner of the M/Y Tatoosh, have agreed on the principles and parameters of a jointly administered emergency restoration plan, which has the immediate focus of helping to speed up the recovery of the damaged site, and to minimise or prevent ongoing losses and harm to the injured coral habitat.

The plan, which was concluded after close collaboration between the DoE and Vulcan representatives, includes the following activities, the first of which already has been completed by DoE staff and Polaris Applied Sciences Inc., a coral reef restoration firm that has been contracted by Vulcan.
1. Triage the affected corals: Upright, uncover, secure and move viable corals to safe locations, while work on stabilising the reef structure is completed.
2. Stabilise or remove the larger rubble accumulations, to prevent continued and future damage to nearby living and established resources from the impacts of rubble movement. As much rubble as possible and to the extent practicable will be incorporated onsite, to recreate and retain the original reef structure.
3. Recreate the lost structure, or reduce the unnatural appearance of scraping or scarring.
4. Rescue and reattach as much living coral and other live biota as practicable, to reduce the time for a full site natural recovery and restore ecosystem services.
5. Monitor the site to determine the success of the restoration effort in the months and years following completion.

On Tuesday, 1 March, the Polaris team are expected to commence work on implementing the remainder of the emergency restoration plan. Oversight of the restoration activities will be carried out by Dr Harold Hudson, a world leader in restoration of coral habitats and formerly of NOAA, who will be engaged by Vulcan but will report to both Vulcan and the DoE. The monitoring of the success of the restoration effort will be carried out under the auspices of the DoE.

The DoE and Paul G. Allen are deeply committed to ocean health and conservation. Both the DoE and Vulcan have worked hard to ensure that this agreement reflects the best international standards for restoration of coral habitats. They look forward to working together on the restoration. No further public statements are planned until the remediation work is completed.