Mooring Buoys and Diving in Kosrae

Kosrae's reef, one of the most pristine hard coral reefs in the world, is protected by over 50 mooring buoys.

The installation of the buoys was a joint community project. Realizing that island life is dependant on the reef the community (dive operators, local fishermen, resource managers and other individuals) created the Mooring Buoy Project Team

The project took 2 years to complete and was successful because of the active participation and support of many private and state organizations as well private individuals that donated materials and many hundreds of hours of labor.

The buoys are suitable for small to medium size boats and may be used by anyone in the community. In addition to protecting Kosrae's pristine hard corals from destructive anchoring practices, the buoys provide secure anchoring sites for increased boating safety.

As the years have gone by, the mooring system has continued to evolve. As you can see in the photos to the right, we are no longer using the shackle pictured above to attach the downline to the mooring pin. Instead we splice a loop in the bottom end of the line and pass the line back through itself to secure it. We are also using a float about 15 feet (5 meters) above the pin to keep the downline from touching coral during low tide.

Two other refinements added this year are a two pound lead weight fastened about 15 feet from the surface on the downline to keep slack line from floating on the surface and attaching a recycled bottle to the downline to mark the mooring location in the event that a buoy comes loose.

5 new pins were installed in 2007 as well as many pickup lines and downlines being replaced.