How does it work?

 

Healthy Land and Water collaborates with mooring holders to replace traditional moorings with environmentally-friendly designs that don’t damage seagrass meadows.

Currently, there are two EFM designs available. Both the Seagrass Friendly Mooring design and the Enviro Mooring design use a shock absorber apparatus that ensures watercraft are safely secured to the seabed and prevents the rope from dragging on the seafloor.

 

Seagrass Friendly Mooring design 

A 3.8-meter long mooring post is screwed into the seabed as the anchor point. Attached to the mooring post just below the seabed is a set of load spreaders to stabilise the post. Then an “Aquatec” UV stabilised marine grade riser is attached from the top of the anchorage at seabed level to the shock absorber located inside the specially designed surface buoy. A “hawser” or pick up line is then connected to the other end of the shock absorber. The Seagrass Friendly Mooring is installed and maintained from a boat fitted with a hydraulic auger drive.

 

Enviro Mooring design

Mooring consists of a helix anchor and Eco Mooring Rode. The helix anchor is screwed into the seabed and is adaptable to almost any type of substrate e.g. sand, mud, etc. The rode is the shock absorber of the mooring. It offers high flexibility by using an elastic core inside the very strong rope. It allows the boat to move in surge and waves, without causing a continual shock on the anchor. These rodes have been bench tested to 33,000 lbs. The system allows for any buoy to be used on the surface.