Coral Bay Harbor, St. John Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES
The Coral Bay Community Council is the recipient of an $836,500 grant from the Office of Coastal Management at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to design a ridge-to-reef resilience plan for Coral Bay.
The grant will allow the Council to “design comprehensive resiliency solutions that improve the use of flat lands in Coral Bay to protect and enhance community infrastructure and critical mangrove, seagrass, and coral reef ecosystems,” said NOAA. The project is set to benefit several species of shorebirds, pelicans, coral, and sea turtles, described as “critical assets.” Flood mitigation work on land is anticipated to reduce the amount of sediment that reaches these natural resources.
The $836,500 grant is part of a wider program – the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Awards. NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management will award $832 million over five years in its quest to make “America’s coasts more resilient to climate change and other coastal hazards through natural infrastructure projects that conserve, restore, and acquire coastal lands to increase flood protection.”
Similar projects have been funded in Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Washington, and Alaska.
The preservation of aquatic life in Coral Bay has dominated recent conversation, as the Summer’s End Group, LLC announced plans to continue on the much-delayed construction of a marina on St. John. Developers have been made to answer legal complaints over the project’s massive environmental impact, and in response, have downsized the marina’s footprint to minimize potential damage. Notwithstanding, the Environmental Protection Agency has documented concerns over the potential destruction of seagrass due to the marina’s construction.
The Summer’s End Group has pledged to protect existing mangroves while establishing mangrove nurseries and working on the landside to mitigate against sedimentary overflows into the bay.
With specifics of the NOAA-funded not yet published, it remains to be seen how the two initiatives will work in tandem to preserve aquatic life in Coral Bay.
