The mini-312 program: An expedited damage assessment and restoration process for seagrasses in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

There are approximately 650 known vessel groundings that occur annually within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS). The majority of these groundings directly impact valuable seagrass habitat. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), under the National Marine Sanctuary Act, and the State of Florida, under Florida statutes, act as co-trustees with the authority to recover monetary damages and restore injuries to the natural resources of the FKNMS. Previously, it was difficult to accomplish assessment and restoration planning for many of these incidents in a cost-effective manner. With the goal of expediting development of litigation-quality natural resource damage claims for seagrass grounding incidents, NOAA has developed and implemented standardized damage assessment, restoration planning, and restoration scaling protocols for seagrass injuries. The protocols center around three major components: 1) GIS-based field assessment, 2) model-based estimation of injury recovery rates, and 3) calculation of compensation using Habitat Equivalency Analysis. By standardizing the assessment and restoration planning procedures associated with these types of incidents, NOAA and the State of Florida have substantially lowered the threshold for the size and severity of grounding injuries that can be cost-effectively assessed and restored, significantly increasing the number of cases that can be addressed annually. In addition to the direct resource benefits of increased assessment and restoration, we anticipate that there will also be a deterrent effect on future groundings.