If dive/snorkel operators and fishermen anchor their boats, this often un-deliberately damages corals. We often see anchors destroying corals in a terrible way, dragging the anchor through the coral formation until it gets stuck. But even if the anchor is fixed, the anchor rope can do even more damage by dragging over the reef with the boat rocking on the waves.
To solve this problem, buoys can be used to facilitate the mooring of boats. We have been doing this from the early beginning. First in the Red Sea, later in Tanzania. At the moment approximately 55 mooring buoys on Zanzibar, Mnemba and Mafia Island are maintained by local partners. Storms, salt water, corrosion and the fierce sun are some of the harsh elements the buoys, steel chains and shackles have to endure. This means maintenance on a regular basis.
Coral Reef Care is not active anymore in deploying mooring buoys . Mooring buoys should not be the responsibility of an NGO but of the parties that benefit from them i.e. dive operators. To throw an anchor on a coral reef is not an option and dive operators should invest more to prevent this at all cost. Unfortunately, there are not many dive operators willing to do this. At least, we did not find any in the last 20 years.
