Miami Waterkeeper and Project Baseline teamed up to host a two-day event, March 21-22 to increase understanding and awareness of coral reef conditions near Port Everglades. During the event, scuba and submersible divers collected valuable baseline data from sections of the Florida Reef Tract just south of the Port Everglades shipping channel. Renowned explorer and environmentalist Philippe Cousteau Jr. joined the team, surveying the damaged reefs in a submersible.

In a race to expand U.S. ports to accommodate larger, next-generation shipping vessels, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is targeting ports along the eastern seaboard for expansion and dredging. The Port of Miami was first on the list, where the shipping channel bisects a once-thriving coral reef and critical habitat for threatened staghorn corals. Since construction began in November 2013, our reefs have been smothered by sediment from the dredging resulting in severe damage of over 250 acres of reef, including hundreds of ESA-listed staghorn corals. In response, Miami Waterkeeper (MWK), along with three other co-plaintiffs, filed a citizen suit in October 2014 to enforce legally-mandated protections for these imperiled corals through the Endangered Species Act.

History is about to repeat itself as the Army Corps of Engineers has taken no steps to alter its Environmental Impact Statement, recently sent to Congress for funding, to ensure that the same disaster doesn’t happen again when dredging for shipping channel expansion at Port Everglades, just 30 miles north of Port Miami. The Port Everglades shipping channel also bisects the Florida reef tract placing coral communities at risk from similar impacts. So far the dredging plan does not include to provisions to prevent the same kind of reef destruction that occurred in Miami.

“The goal of the two-day event, a partnership between Miami Waterkeeper and Project Baseline, was to raise awareness about reefs at risk from the upcoming dredging project to expand the Port Everglades shipping channel,” said Rachel Silverstein, Executive Director and Waterkeeper of Miami Waterkeeper. “We also collected baseline data about the condition of the reefs before dredging begins. We were also thrilled to have Philippe Cousteau join us, to see the reefs in the submersible, and to help us to amplify the message throughout his network to reach new individuals. He has a unique voice and a way of seeing this issue clearly and explaining what’s at risk.”

Project Baseline, a nonprofit organization engaging a global effort to establish environmental baselines for marine environments at depths to 1,000’, brings a unique array of diving and documentation assets in support of Miami Waterkeeper’s mission. The Baseline Explorer is a 146’ privately owned research vessel that supports Project Baseline by pairing capable volunteer divers with human occupied observation submersibles to engage collaborative scientific and conservation projects in the Atlantic and bordering seas.

“The people who don’t dive and don’t experience the water the way we do need to understand the impact of what’s going on from what we do in our everyday lives and how it’s affecting two-thirds of the planet” says Robert Carmichael, co-owner and operator of Baseline Explorer.

During the two-day diving and outreach event near Port Everglades, Baseline Explorer served as a mobile dive platform for advanced SCUBA dive teams from Global Underwater Explorers to document particular reef areas and to monitor their changes over time. Simultaneously, manned submersibles operations recorded video of the coral communities encountered using high-resolution cameras.