Coral Relocation as Habitat Mitigation for Impacts from Barzan and Flow Assurance Project Pipeline Construction, Offshore, Eastern Qatar
Authors: Deb Kaushik , McCarthy Anne 
Published: December 2015

The Barzan and Flow Assurance Project (FAP) projects were expected to cause impacts to shallow coral communities during near shore pipeline construction. To partially meet the State of Qatar's environmental clearance for the project, whilst supporting the Qatar National Vision 2030, RasGas Company Limited developed project- specific Coral Management, Relocation, and Monitoring Plans. These plans incorporated proven methodologies to relocate at-risk coral colonies to a suitable location, which have been monitored since 2012 for coral bond status, coral health and benthic characterisation.

The paper will outline the various methods used to complete the Benthic Environmental Survey (BES) and the subsequent monitoring campaigns. The project documents the first-ever successful use of substrate augmentation with limestone boulders and artificial majfara reef modules in Qatari waters. The coral monitoring campaign incorporated an array of quantitative techniques which are described in more detail.

The scope of the coral relocation project includes the following:

Benthic environmental survey (BES) in November 2011 to assess coral colonies' health and suitability for relocation;

Relocation of 2,793 corals (1,693 from the Barzan project in February 2012 and 1,100 from FAP in July 2014) from the respective pipeline corridors to a recipient site;

The recipient site required substrate augmentation to compensate for lack of emergent bottom. The Barzan corals were reattached on 550 natural limestone boulders and the FAP corals were reattached to 213 artificial majfara reef modules; and

Multiyear coral monitoring program to assess the health of the reattached coral colonies, colonisation of the artificial habitat and reef fish abundance in the reattachment and reference sites.

The results presented in this paper include the following:

Results from the 2012 BES completed in the pipeline corridor and at proposed coral reattachment sites;

Results from the post-construction monitoring surveys (2012 to present) completed at the reattachment and two reference sites with focus on coral bond status, coral health assessment (i.e., survivorship metrics) and benthic characterisation;

Conclusions regarding success of relocation, coral survivorship (less than 5% dead or missing), epibiotic proliferation and benthic characterisation. The project data is significant for:

Oil and gas and large infrastructure project developers seeking to identify, mitigate and potentially compensate marine environmental impacts; and

Government and private organisations involved in marine environmental protection and developing knowledge on coral communities in Qatar and the Middle East.

The project is significant for the following reasons:

First-ever successful deployment of artificial substrates such as limestone boulders and artificial majfara reefs for a coral relocation project in Qatari waters;

Emergence of coral recruits at the reattachment site, which indicates the success of the new coral habitat; and

Regular biannual publication of coral monitoring campaign findings since 2012, which are widely reported.

Preliminary monitoring results indicate that the relocated corals were of comparable health and exhibited similar signs of stress as the reference corals. This paper presents monitoring results from Barzan Survey I (May 2012) through VI (January 2015) which were assessed for the following categories - reattached colony bonding status, colony health assessment, benthic characterization, reef fish assemblage, sediment accumulation, sea urchin density and water column data. In addition, the paper also addresses the results from FAP Survey I and II (January 2015).

RasGas will continue to monitor and report on both the Barzan and FAP coral monitoring programs as they mature and incorporate lessons learned. Despite the initial challenges to find a suitable substrate, the quarried limestone boulders and majfara ridge modules have proven to be a sustainable habitat for the relocated corals, associated fauna and reef fish populations. The project will hopefully contribute to the body of existing knowledge for building successful coral relocation programs in the Gulf and stand as testament to RasGas' commitment to protecting Qatar's precious offshore biodiversity.