Partnership to create largest artificial reef in Texas
Partnership to create largest artificial reef in Texas
Ambitious plan will create habitat for marine life on 381 acres
By Shannon Tompkins |
June 1, 2016 | Updated: June 1, 2016 9:26pm
[font size=1]
Photo: Chris Ledford
Five hundred concrete pyramids, specially designed to provide high-quality habitat for marine life, will be the first structures placed in the state's latest artificial reef project, a 381-acre area about six miles off Port O'Connor.
[/font]
A public/private partnership between the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and a trio of conservation groups plans to sink $1 million in private donations and 500 specially designed concrete pyramids into the state-controlled water of the Gulf of Mexico in the initial phase of what will be the state's largest, most ambitious artificial reef project.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Partnership-to-create-largest-artificial-reef-in-7958234.php
(To read beyond this point you have to be a paid subscriber. I'm not, so I found an older article, about similar devices.)
[center]
Reef balls! [/center]
Watery dwellings
New ways to construct underwater environments are encouraging marine life and boosting fish stocks
Dec 6th 2014 | From the print edition
TOILETS, shopping carts, washing machines and other assorted junk have been dumped into the sea to create habitats for marine organisms and the fish that feed upon them. But making reefs from refuse is now frowned upon. Alabama, for example, banned fishermen from sinking vehicles in the Gulf of Mexico in 1996, even when drained of potentially harmful fluids. Now more bespoke artificial reefs are taking shape.
Reefs improvised from junk often do not work well. Corals struggle to colonise some metals, and cars and domestic appliances mostly disintegrate in less than a decade. Some organisms do not take to paints, enamels, plastics or rubber. Precious little sea life has attached itself to the 2m or so tyres sunk in the early 1970s to create a reef off Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Tyres occasionally break free, smash into coral on natural reefs and wash ashore.
Yet building artificial reefs that are attractive to marine life can pay dividends. Some of the reefs built in Japanese waters support a biomass of fish that is 20 times greater than similarly sized natural reefs, says Shinya Otake, a marine biologist at Fukui Prefectural University. He expects further gains from a decision by the Japanese government to build new reefs in deep water where they will be bathed in nutrients carried in plankton-rich seawater welling up from below.
The potential bounty was confirmed in a recent study by Occidental College in Los Angeles. Over five to 15 years researchers surveyed marine life in the vicinity of 16 oil and gas rigs off the Californian coast. These were compared with seven natural rocky reefs. The researchers found that the weight of fish supported by each square metre of sea floor was 27 times higher for the rigs. Although much of this increase comes from the rigs providing fish with the equivalent of skyscraper-style living, it suggests that leaving some rigs in place when production ceases might benefit the environment.
Making reefs with hollow concrete modules has been especially successful. Called reef balls, these structures are pierced with holes and range in height up to 2.5 metres. The design is promoted by the Reef Ball Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in Athens, Georgia. Reef balls can be positioned to make the most of photosynthesis and for plankton to drift slowly across their curved inner surface. This improves the nourishment of plants and creatures setting up home within. A hole in the top reduces the chance of them being moved about by storm currents.
More:
http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21635319-new-ways-construct-underwater-environments-are-encouraging-marine-life-and
= new reply since forum marked as read
