PROJECTS

Coral reef surveys were conducted at Farallon de Medinilla (FDM) September 27 – October 1, 2017 by Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center Pacific, Scientific Diving Services (SDS) to satisfy requirements of the Mariana Islands Training and Testing Area Biological Opinion (MITT BO) issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2015 (NMFS 2015). The primary objectives of this survey were to quantify the abundance and location around the island of Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed corals, quantify coral reef health (percent cover of living coral, coral species composition, and coral condition), and compile observations of ordnance impacts. Secondary objectives were to record incidental observations of any other ESA-listed species encountered while fulfilling the primary objectives. The 2017 survey fully fulfilled Terms and Conditions 4 and 5 from the 2015 MITT BO (NMFS 2015), specifically to “provide reports of any observed in-water effects (e.g., crater size, observed mortality) to corals resulting from detonations of high-explosive bombs as they are discovered incidental to routine operations or during coral reef surveys to confirm or to help revise assumptions on the effects of high-explosive bombs to corals at various depths” and “survey coral reef habitat around FDM within 20 meters of water depth…to confirm presence or absence and abundance or ESA-listed corals and to assess general trends in coral reef species composition, percent coral coverage, and condition (disease, predators, extent of breakage, etc.)”.

This survey follows prior surveys at FDM, conducted by some of the same team members since 1997 (Smith and Marx 2015).