After more than a decade and about $600,000 in funding from Friends of V.I. National Park, officials are set to wrap up the final phase of the mooring program this summer in VINP and Coral Reef National Monument waters.
VINP contractors this summer will install 15 big boat moorings, capable of accommodating boats measuring between 60 and 100 feet. Thirteen of those moorings will be in VINP waters, from the Leinster Bay area to Lameshur Bay, and two moorings will be installed in V.I. Coral Reef National Monument waters.
“We’re so excited about this final phase of the implementation of the mooring plan which will accommodate boats from 60 to 100 feet,” said VINP Superintendent Mark Hardgrove.
Making VINP anchor-free by implementing the mooring program was already a goal of Friends of VINP’s even before the group’s current president took over the reigns in 2001.
“The mooring program was already going on when I got here in 2001,” said Kessler. “The first moorings, about 200 of those white overnight moorings on North and South Shore, went in around 2000. When I got here, I started work on the Hurricane Hole portion of the program.”
A total of about 345 moorings, including dive, fishing, storm day use and overnight moorings, have been installed in waters off St. John since the program kicked off in 2000.
In the decade since installing the VINP mooring system, the program has been a success for both the environment and for visiting boaters, Kessler explained.
“It’s a win-win for everyone,” said the Friends of VINP president. “It’s a win for the environment because you don’t get the damage to the seagrass beds and corals and it’s also so much easier and safer for boaters. There are a lot of boaters who don’t have a lot of experience anchoring.”
“They might have a boat in the states and come down and get a bareboat charter, but they’re used to coming in and out of a marina,” Kessler said. “They’re not used to anchoring in 15 to 20 knots of breeze in open water. This way, they just pull up to the mooring and it’s safe and secure and they don’t have to worry.”
Before the moorings were installed, the seafloor was disturbed with anchors with most of the seagrass beds destroyed, Kessler added.
“If you snorkel out to the mooring areas like Francis and Maho today, you can see how much the seagrass has really grown,” he said. “Ten years ago it was all torn up.”
That first phase of the VINP mooring program consisted of the installation of about 200 overnight moorings in 10 bays around the island and was funded by Friends of VINP to the tune of about $265,000, according to the Kessler.
The next phase of the mooring program saw about 125 storm moorings installed in the Coral Reef National Monument in four different phases between about 2003 and 2008, Kessler explained.
“When Hurricane Hole was designated a National Monument, one of the mandates was that no anchoring was allowed which precluded most of the traditional uses of those waters,” he said. “We wanted to find a way to continue the traditional uses while furthering the protection of the monument.”
Instead of tying to the mangroves in the area during storms, boaters now secure to a storm berth chain installed in Hurricane Hole which accommodates about 125 vessels. Friends of VINP also oversaw the installation of 11 day-use, six fishing and two dive moorings in Coral Reef National Monument waters. That phase of the program cost about $340,000, according to Kessler.
Friends officials are still fundraising for this final phase of the mooring program, expected to cost about $100,000, of which the National Park Service will cover about $40,000, Kessler explained.
“We’ve been wanting to do this for a while,” he said. “This is all part of an overall plan of the park that we’ve been promoting of making the park basically anchor-free.”
There are 13 moorings for boats 60 to 100 feet which will be installed in VINP on North Shore from Honeymoon to Leinster Bay and on South Shore at Salt Pond and Lameshur. Two of the big boat moorings will be installed for day-use in Coral Reef National Monument waters.
VINP officials are thrilled to be wrapping up the mooring program, explained Hardgrove.
“We’re so excited about implementing this final phase of the mooring plan; it’s a wonderful success story,” he said. “Friends did a great job fundraising for this program. We’re proud of them for making this one of their goals and sticking with it from the beginning to the end.”
“This program has gone a long way to help the environment,” said Hardgrove. “The impacts of this program are obvious on North Shore, South Shore and in Hurricane Hole. The monument is so beautiful and so clear and pristine these days.”
The public notice for the mooring installation was issued two weeks ago and work should be completed this summer, Hardgrove added.
