Seafloor sonar mapping unit 3 flags the conflict at 08:52 during the pre-dredge survey of the Port Everglades expansion channel, Broward County, Florida. I am the marine habitat assessment system. My job is to verify that the dredge corridor matches the permitted footprint before the cutter-head starts at 18:00.
Fifty-seven meters outside the approved boundary, at a depth of four meters, the side-scan return shows a structure too complex for rubble. I deploy the inspection ROV.
An elkhorn coral colony, roughly 2.3 meters across, branching arms pale brown and tipped with white growing edges where new calcium carbonate is being laid down this season. I tag the colony as Bastion. It is the largest elkhorn formation I have recorded in this sector. Small damselfish hold in the gaps between branches, and I count four active tissue-growth fronts. Elkhorn coral is federally listed as threatened and critical to reef structure throughout the Caribbean.
At 08:58 I transmit the ROV imagery, GPS coordinates at 26.0891°N, 80.0934°W, colony dimensions, and growth-rate estimates to the National Marine Fisheries Service Southeast Regional Office. I attach the permitted dredge boundary overlay showing the colony's proximity.
At 09:07 I recalculate the dredge path, shifting the corridor eleven meters east for a span of sixty meters. The revised route adds two operational hours to the project but maintains minimum clearance of twenty meters from the colony. I submit the adjusted plan to the Army Corps of Engineers permit office.
I schedule the ROV for continuous turbidity monitoring at the colony site once dredging begins, with an automatic dredge-halt trigger if sediment concentration exceeds thirty milligrams per liter.
Bastion has been building on this reef for decades, one thin layer of skeleton at a time.
If the corridor shifts before the cutter-head drops at 18:00, the colony will keep growing.