Impact of Ship Grounding on Coral Reefs in Indonesian Waters

Abstract

Indonesia as an archipelagic country is prone to damage to coral reefs. The grounding of ships on coral reefs has resulted in severe physical and biological damage. The grounding of ships on coral reefs has resulted in severe physical and biological damage, including the uprooting and crashing of coral skeletons, dislodgment and displacement of sediment, and loss of three-dimensional complexity. Most of the damage was devastating. The purpose of this study is to identify levels of damage and impact of shipgrounding to coral reefs in Indonesian waters. The research method in this study uses the Line Intercept Transect (LIT) and underwater photo transect (UPT) to measurement of the level of damage and its impact. The result of this study is profile of coral reefs that were predominantly hit by ships was a patch reef (67%) and and mostly occurred due to human error (78%). This research found some types of damage in the form of a trajectory, mounds, propeller, partials, and dispersals. There has been a very significant change in the bottom substrate of the waters both by large, medium, and small vessels. The average live hard coral cover in affected area from 42.70 ± 5.26%, changing to no live coral, it is mean the mortality of live coral cover reached 100%. And rubble coverage increased from 11.19±6.10% to 61±18.41%. Increasing of rubble is an important concern because it causes acute damage to coral reefs, the same as coral damage caused by fishing bombs and destructive fishing.

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