Mooring buoys awaiting repairs across Cayman Islands

A large number of the public boat moorings dotted around the Cayman Islands cannot be used currently, as the Department of Environment awaits resources to repair them.

There are more than 360 public moorings, including 235 in Grand Cayman, for dive boats, yachts and fishing vessels across the three islands, but boaters have been reporting that more and more of them are unuseable.

Some popular dive sites, like Trinity Caves off the West Bay coast in Grand Cayman, have been without a working mooring ball for at least two years, local dive operators have told the Cayman Compass.

The Department of Environment is tasked with annual checks and repairs of the buoys, but in recent years has lacked the equipment to fix them.

Bradley Johnson, deputy director of operations and enforcement at the department, says discussions are currently under way with a local vendor “to drill new pins for several of the broken sites”, adding that the Department of Environment’s own drilling equipment needs to be repaired or replaced.

Mooring balls are large buoys, secured to the seabed by heavy chains or ropes, that allow vessels to moor without anchoring, thus preventing damage to the coral reefs. Those buoys have a pin at the top to which a rope, with a ring at the end, is attached. This rope floats on the surface of the water, so boat operators can hook it and attach to their vessel, making it possible to moor up to the buoy.

While most of the mooring balls remain in place, the pins or ropes are missing in several of them.

“There have been issues with the procurement process for replacement rope and mooring supplies,” Johnson said.

“We hope to resolve these shortly, but do acknowledge that a large number of moorings are missing, and apologise to the public for the current status of the public moorings.”

According to the Department of Environment website, the 18- and 30-inch white buoys or the larger orange buoys for yachts are public moorings and can be used free of charge for up to three hours. The 18-inch, single-pin buoys are designed to hold vessels up to 60-feet long, and the 30-inch, two-pin buoys are for vessels up to 100 feet.

Damaged or missing buoys can be reported the Department of Environment at 949-8469 or [email protected].