Maui, HI Artificial Reef Disaster

[Shaka Doug]

Last week the State of Hawaii attempted to improve our artificial reef system just off of Maui's southwest coast. The original artificial reef had been there since the early 1960's and had turned into a thriving fish habitat. The area even includes a shipwreck called the St. Anthony.

They were supposed to drop the 1,100 Z blocks and 400 Square tubes in an area of sand adjacent to the tires and cars that are already down there. Let's just say 'They Missed!'

From watching this video that someone posted on YouTube just days after the 'drop' I would say they really botched it. I cannot believe my eyes and am wondering how could this have happened. This is 2009 people!! Couldn't someone put a mask on after the first piece hit the water to tell them how things were turning out?? Really? Was it really an accident?? Not if you see the photos that were in the Maui News. Looked like they were pretty intent on emptyng that barge as fast as they could with no regard for the ocean bottom.

Watch this....



Now what?

 

[smellzlikefish]

Looks to me like they chose this site by throwing a dart at a chart. Why build artificial reefs where real reefs already occur? It is obvious they were shooting for the adjacent sand, sure, but with all of the Halimeda flats off the south coast of Maui then to go and choose a groove in the natural spur and groove reefs just doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Now DAR's screw up is in plain sight of the public.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

It is obvious they were shooting for the adjacent sand, sure, but with all of the Halimeda flats off the south coast of Maui then to go and choose a groove in the natural spur and groove reefs just doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Now DAR's screw up is in plain sight of the public.

I would be interested in more information on how you can describe Hawaii reefs as spur and groove. I was under the impression spur and groove reefs were only in areas of the world where millennia of coral skeletons are what the living reef is built upon. In that situation the living reef (and its dead foundation) chose their positioning with help from the naturally occurring currents (or had it chosen for them).

I had been told that Hawaii's reefs are different; that they are instead thin relatively young geological layers of slow growing hard corals (for the most part) that cover the existing volcanic landscape. It is true that there are portions of reef in Hawaiian waters that are similar in appearance to spur and groove reefs, and perhaps in the atoll regions of the NW Hawaiian Islands there do exist some true spur and groove reef, but I am pretty darn sure that there is no spur and groove in the area where these Z blocks were dropped.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The feds should fine the crap out of whoever did that. The fine should be used for restitution and construct more reef in the right place

 

[Wookie]

Looks like ocean dumping to me.

 

[Guy Alcala]

Last week the State of Hawaii attempted to improve our artificial reef system just off of Maui's southwest coast. The original artificial reef had been there since the early 1960's and had turned into a thriving fish habitat. The area even includes a shipwreck called the St. Anthony.

They were supposed to drop the 1,100 Z blocks and 400 Square tubes in an area of sand adjacent to the tires and cars that are already down there. Let's just say 'They Missed!'

From watching this video that someone posted on YouTube just days after the 'drop' I would say they really botched it. I cannot believe my eyes and am wondering how could this have happened. This is 2009 people!! Couldn't someone put a mask on after the first piece hit the water to tell them how things were turning out?? Really? Was it really an accident?? Not if you see the photos that were in the Maui News. Looked like they were pretty intent on emptyng that barge as fast as they could with no regard for the ocean bottom.

Watch this....



Now what?

What's the size and weight of a Z-block? Assuming that moving them won't do more damage than leaving them in situ, ISTM you could get a bunch of volunteers (with some experience using lift bags) to move them off the reef. I don't know what proportion of the blocks landed on the reef or how deep the site is, but assuming a single dive team could move 5 to 10 an hour you should be able to move a fair number of them in a reasonable period of time.

Guy

 

[smellzlikefish]

Hi Hale- I'm not sure, but I remember some prof. using a Hawaiian reef as an example of a spur and groove. They are caused by currents flushing out from shore, like you pointed out. Hawaii's reefs are relatively young, sure, but they do have feet of calcium carbonate buildup. Haleakala is well over 1 million years old, in fact it started forming about 2 million years ago, giving the corals/calcareous algaes 2 million years to accumulate growth and be affected by currents. There are still spots where corals are growing on bare basalt (Portlock, Kona reef flats, etc.). NOAA defines spur and groove as follows: "a system of shallow ridges (spurs) separated by deep channels (grooves) oriented perpendicular to the reef crest and extending down the upper seaward slope."

This is a Google Earth image of the reef immediately offshore of Waikiki. While not the clearest example, I think the spurs and grooves labeled here are representative of what NOAA is talking about.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Continuing Hijack:

First off; if you look at the following linked thread on photo posting, a max width of 700 pixels wide (or wider) is only really working for other SB viewers with high resolution wide monitors who are SB members (so less adds). The most friendly max width of pictures posted to threads is suggested to be 640 pixels. When you post wider pictures everyone's text extends that far and then if you want to read the text many users have to scroll back and forth for each sentence. Resizing to 640 pixels or less max width is what knowledgeable SB photo posters do.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/photo-gallery/276278-how-posting-photos-youtube.html

Second: It would appear that there is now a "classic" spur and groove reef as well as a "layman's" spur and groove, used here in Hawaii, for structures which are more accurately described as eroded basaltic features. Also, as described in the quoted text below, there are a few areas in the main Hawaiian Islands that may have enough "biological accretion" to qualify as "classic" spur and groove. Somedays it seems I need to apologize for being "allergic" to layman's terms.

Nonetheless, there are neither "classic" or "layman's" spur and groove in the area of the Z block damage off Keawakapu Beach.

The fingerlike reef structures running perpendicular to the shoreline commonly seen along Hawaiian shorelines appear to be formed from resistant basalt ridges. The islands were formed by successive lava flows running down slope. These pre-existing lava formations consist various layers of dense sheet-like pahoehoe, broken blocks of aa lava, cinder, lava tubes filled with hardened dense lava or as long hollow lava tubes. All of these structures strike seaward due to the down slope direction of the flowing lava that formed the layers. Differential rates of erosion on the various types of lava will create longitudinal ridges and valleys. The basalt ridges become colonized by corals and crustose coralline algae that can eventually form thick layers of overlying carbonate rock. Remote sensing images reveal these structures that can appear to be similar to classic "spur and groove" formations. However, the features off Hawai‘i are generally eroded basaltic features rather than constructive carbonate features known as spur and groove formations. A number of areas, including Kawaihae (Hawai‘i), Olowalu (Maui) and Kailua Bay (O‘ahu) have quite massive spur and groove features that appear to be constructional and may fit the classic definition. Investigators working in Hawai‘i commonly have referred to all of these structures as "spur and groove" regardless of whether they are the result of erosion or biological accretion. In any event, these structures might be functionally similar habitats for organisms inhabiting the area.

CRAMP Long Term Monitoring Study Sites: Spur and Groove

 

[smellzlikefish]

So their formation is different in some areas, but the structures look similar and act similar.

I really don't mean to rub salt, and admit I'm not familiar with Keawakapu Beach Park specifically, but SOEST's aerial imagery (Hawaii Coastal Geology Group - Maui Imagery Index) shows what looks to be the start of "laymen's" spur and grooves (I wouldn't consider "investigators "laymen"-suggest change in nomenclature). What is the bottom like there and, bringing it back to the original discussion, why would they choose to build reef in sand that is immediately adjacent to the natural reef?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Anything resembling "layman's" spur and groove (the investigators are hardly researchers for the most part) ends at ~35' depth. The bottom from 40' to 80-90' is halimeda and/or sand.

Here is todays Maui News article about two independent Federal investigations.

Federal agencies to probe reef damage - Mauinews.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Visitor's Information - The Maui News