Artificial coral reefs

 I wrote my first piece on the Great Barrier Reef for a project in primary school.  I mostly remember my drawings of weird, vibrant coral and colourful fish.  At that time I thought that coral reefs were beautiful and healthy and home to wonderful creatures but actually they were already widely exploited for tourism and fishing and no doubt harmful chemicals and sediment were insidiously doing their untold damage.

Reefs around the world are dying rapidly (approximately 50% in the past 30 years) due to increasing water temperature, changing sea levels and human activity including the development of resorts in the vicinity of these fragile ecosystems. The loss of coral reefs results in the potential loss of one of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems.

There has been a move to construct artificial reefs to provide a habitat for organisms that are at risk of extinction through the destruction of natural coral reefs.  Radiocarbon studies have dated living coral colonies in the Atlantic and the Pacific at about 2000 to 3000 years old but artificial coral reefs can become established in as little as 2 to 3 years.  The first recorded artificial reefs were formed by Japanese fishermen in the 18th century.  Artificial reefs can be constructed using breeze blocks, sunken ships or even sculptures - basically anything made of a hard substrate which can offer shelter and protection for marine organisms to populate. Artificial reefs are sometimes used to control erosion and block the use of trawling nets.  They can also attract divers, surfers and other tourists and can lead to improvements in the local economy by increasing fish populations. 



The Florida Reef is the third largest coral barrier reef system in the world and is potentially 5000 to 7000 years old.  A US Environmental Protection Agency reef monitoring programme recorded a loss of up to 10% of living corals on the Florida Reef between 1996 and 2000.  Florida also has extensive artificial reefs, developed to increase fishing and diving tourism as well as increasing biodiversity.  These artificial reefs are frequently constructed from ships that have been thoroughly prepared for seeding by coral forming polyps. 

When it was sunk in the Florida Keys in 2002, the 155m Spiegel Grove (picture above) was the largest artificial reef in the world.

There are problems however when reefs are built using material such as old tyres. Tyres provide an attractive location for aquatic organisms to spawn but the toxicity of the rubber has a substantial negative impact on the environment.  The ecological disaster of the failed Osborne Reef in Florida is an example of this. Australia prohibits the construction of artificial reefs without a permit.

The Osborne Reef, Florida.

The natural biodiversity of each natural coral reef is different.  Artificial reefs seem to attract more fish than natural reefs but it is not known if the fish only come to these sites to feed rather than breed.  This could be a problem if artificial reefs are simply concentrating fish in a single, small area, effectively putting fishing pressure on their populations and resulting in a negative impact.

A Caribbean study found that some organisms populate natural reefs much more readily than they populate artificial reefs.  These species are therefore at the greatest risk and demonstrate why great efforts need to be made to protect natural coral reefs.  There is an ambitions project to re-plant part of the Great Barrier Reef with young, healthy corals raised in man made coral nurseries - this would be really cool if it works but I imagine it will take a very long time! While artificial reefs are vital in the endeavour to preserve biodiversity and have an important role in saving numerous aquatic species from extinction, it is worth noting that the causes of natural coral reef death will have a similar impact on the corals growing on artificial reefs.  The root problems of pollution and physical damage to reef systems need to be addressed – nothing less will do.

You can take a lovely virtual dive on a coral reef at  https://www.catlinseaviewsurvey.com/virtual-dives

 Jeannie

Comments

  1. BridgetApril 30, 2021 at 9:40 AM

    I nearly to this this topic. Did you also see can make them out of 3d printing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JeanieMay 4, 2021 at 5:37 AM

      I did! there is so much stuff you could write about isn't there? that's the bit i think i like best - all the other stuff you find out in the process.

      Delete

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