Buck Island National Monument is open as of Tuesday morning, but the National Park Service’s coral reef jewel took a hit in Hurricane Lenny.
Joel Tutein, superintendent of the Park Service’s operation on St. Croix, said that despite damage to its beaches and reef, Buck Island is open to visitors. "There was no hazard to navigation, so we opened it," Tutein said.
But Hurricane Lenny took a toll on the fragile reef on the island’s eastern tip. Tutein said Park Service scientists were assessing damage to the entire reef on Tuesday, but what he saw on a preliminary trip Sunday wasn’t encouraging.
"Big chunks of elkhorn coral were broken in half," Tutein said.
While an on-site assessment is taking place, Tutein said he has called on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct overflights to get an aerial picture of the damage. Earlier this year, NOAA flew over the reef taking hydro-spectro photos to determine the amount of reef at the site. The photographic process captured images of the reef up to 40 feet deep. Those images, taken from various altitudes, are then used to map the reef, Tutein said.
Tutein said he hopes to have NOAA conduct flights early next week so coral reef experts will be able to compare pre- and post-storm maps.
"They already have a good baseline," he said. "The before-and-after pictures will tell us how much damage we sustained."
Ironically, scientists from throughout the world were on St. Croix earlier this month attending the third Coral Reef Task Force conference. The conference was held to design a plan that aims to protect and nurse coral reefs back to health.
In addition to the underwater trail, Tutein said Buck Island’s picnic shelter and bathroom facilities were also damaged.
