Most claimants assume that the quantum of damages for injured coral habitat in any location will be equivalent to that for high value coral habitat damage.
Not all coral habitats are ecologically or economically equal. Regulatory compensation formulas and other means of estimating damage from vessel groundings or anchor damage in coral often do not discriminate between the wide ranges of ecological services available for vastly different coral environments. On 27 August 2014, the US National Marine Fisheries Service announced they will consider 20 additional coral species as “threatened” affording protection for a total of 22 species in US waters, seven in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic and 15 in the Indo-Pacific. Compensation for injuries to coral may include costs of removing the vessel, regulatory response and assessment efforts, repair or reinstatement of the coral reef, as well as compensation for lost future use, and third party claims for losses to fisheries and other commercial resources. For the purposes of regulatory protection, authorities in tropical maritime regions typically view coral reefs as any hard bottom location where coral organisms may occur, regardless of coral abundance or the presence of traditionally defined coral reefs.
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