Coral reef habitat scraped and crushed by the T/V PORT STEWART grounding

Date of incident: October 27, 2009.

Location: Yabucoa, Puerto Rico

Trustees:

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) 

Case status: Emergency Restoration and Assessment Phase

Overview: On October 27, 2009, the T/V PORT STEWART, a 176 meter tank vessel with a cargo of seven million gallons of oil, struck coral reef habitat off the southeast shore of Puerto Rico near the entrance to Yabucoa Channel at 0942 local time. Once aground, evidence indicates the vessel was pivoted but remained aground at the bow. The vessel was eventually freed with the assistance of local tug boats after forward ballast water was released and cargo was transferred to the aft of the vessel. During extraction, another section of reef approximately 600 feet to the south was impacted. The grounding of the T/V PORT STEWART, its subsequent movement, and actions undertaken to prevent a significant oil spill resulted in substantial reef injury including fractured and crushed hard corals, dislodged hard and soft corals, areas of scraped and pulverized bottom, tug-boat cable damage, and patches of anti-fouling paint and caused or contributed to a loss of biota over slightly more than 500 square meters of sea floor (estimated).

The impact site is located about 600 yds northeast of the #2 Yabucoa entrance buoy. The affected reef area is a hard bottom of underlying limestone, much of which supports hard and soft corals as well as numerous other benthic invertebrates. The bathymetry varies from 25 to 31 feet with scattered deeper sand, coral and rubble depressions greater than 31 feet deep. Injured species include Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis), a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Officials of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce ("NOAA") are designated, pursuant to section 1006(b) of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (‘‘OPA’’), 33 U.S.C. 2706(b), as trustees ("Trustees") for natural resources harmed by this Incident. Puerto Rico DNER has further authority to address the harm caused by this Incident pursuant to Law 147 of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

	A large brain coral (2 meters in diameter) that was overturned by the T/V PORT STEWART Grounding			A diver works near an impacted staghorn coral colony (Acorpora cervicornis). This species of coral is listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act.