Sea Ventures Marine Response Unit
US Coast Guard
Groundings
Sea Ventures MRU was born supporting grounding responses in Puerto Rico with historical large-scale T/V Margara and T/V Matthew grounding events. Our grounding response efforts address the needs of government agencies and responsible parties such as biological impact assessments, extraction planning and implementation, logistics, debris removal, and compensatory mitigation/restoration.
Our strongest work area is mitigating the biological and physical damage to coastal habitats caused by groundings. For this we not only restore damaged coral, but we also strive to stabilize loose rubble and repair structural damage by integrating construction principles and bioengineering. We understand the grounding response is a sensitive process that requires strong stakeholder engagement and effective communication. Therefore, we have partnered with local and federal agencies to implement a fast response based on the trust in our team’s quality results.
Our experience has been developed at remote and near-shore locations in the U.S. Caribbean from Mona Island in the West to the U.S. Virgin Islands in the East. We have supported dozens of grounding responses of small recreational vessels to large 100+ foot cargo vessels. To support decision-making, we integrate several tools such as drone mapping, underwater photogrammetry, coral rescue and relocation (outplanting), and monitoring.
Our experience has been developed at remote and near-shore locations in the U.S. Caribbean from Mona Island in the West to the U.S. Virgin Islands in the East. We have supported dozens of grounding responses of small recreational vessels to large 100+ foot cargo vessels.
To support decision-making, we integrate several tools such as drone mapping, underwater photogrammetry, coral rescue and relocation (outplanting), and monitoring.
Grounding of M/V Bonnie G off St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Sailboat grounding in El Palo reef at La Parguera Natural Reserve, Puerto Rico.
Reef structural damage caused by recreational catamaran grounding at Buye Beach, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.
Relocation of large lobed star coral (Orbicella annularis) colony during grounding response at El Atravesado, La Parguera Natural Reserve, Puerto Rico
Extraction operations during the Jeriah grounding in Mona Island Natural Reserve, Puerto Rico.
Drone imagery map prepared by Sea Ventures MRU to brief stakeholders about findings of biological assessment and potential vessel removal paths. Grounding at El Atravesado reef, La Parguera Natural Reserve, Puerto Rico.
