Protected sea turtle species frequent some navigation channels that must be maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Most of these channels are maintained by hopper dredging, and sea turtle injuries and mortalities may result as the flat sloping lead edge of conventional hopper dredge dragheads encounter a sea turtle. A new hopper dredge draghead was developed that could deflect, rather than damage or entrain, a sea turtle during dredging operations. A prototype of the new rigid deflector draghead was constructed and installed on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hopper dredge McFarland. This report describes the development and field testing of the new rigid sea turtle deflector draghead. Flexible chain deflecting mechanisms for conventional dragheads are described, and the rigid deflector draghead was evaluated based on comparative test runs using a standard California draghead. Field-test preparations included the construction and placement of prototype model sea turtles. Results show successful sea turtle-deflecting capability and comparable production rates with the conventional California draghead. Hopper dredge operating procedures critical to successfully using the rigid deflector draghead are also included.


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    Titel :

    Development and Evaluation of a Sea Turtle-Deflecting Hopper Dredge Draghead



    Erschienen in:

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    1994


    Format / Umfang :

    5414417


    Medientyp :

    Report


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch



    Klassifikation :