Faux Reefs Prove to be Failing
As a result of the destruction of reefs in the world’s oceans, an attempt was made to constuct artificial reefs out of concrete and car tires. As scientists now know, this idea was not thourougly thought out, and now beaches across the world are paying the price. The governor of Florida plans to set aside $2 million dollars just so the tires can be rid of.
Image Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Car_tires.jpg/600px-Car_tires.jpg
Scientists and oceanic environmental groups had hoped that these tires would replace the dying and destructed reefs in the ocean by providing a new havenfor marine life. As it turned out, the tires were not properly secured, and eventually broke free from eachother. Goodyear donated all of the tires, which were secured by nylon. When this was found out to be uneventful, the tires were stacked 10 high and then filled with concrete so that they would not break apart. This however, also failed because it did not leave enough room for marine habitation to prosper.
“We’ve literally dumped millions of tires in our oceans,” said Jack Sobel, an Ocean Conservancy scientist. “I believe that people who were behind the artificial tire reef promotions actually were well-intentioned and thought they were doing the right thing. In hindsight, we now realize that we made a mistake.”
“The really good idea was to provide habitat for marine critters so we could double or triple marine life in the area. It just didn’t work that way,” said Ray McAllister, a professor of ocean engineering at Florida Atlantic University who was instrumental in organizing the project. “I look back now and see it was a bad idea.”
Now, Florida, along with many other states, and countries around the world, will have to put forth the effort to clean up. Members of the army and navy seals will contribute by cleaning up the tires as part of thier training.
Image Credit:
I never knew that this idea was imposed at all, and if someone would have brought the idea to me I would have thought that it wouldn’t work. Obviously, with ocean currents, tides, ocean predators, etc., extreme consideration needed to be made as to how to keep the tires together so they wouldn not get swept away, as they did onto numerous beaches. I think instead more research should have gone into why the reefs need to be replaced aritificially in the first place. Now, millions of dollars and large amounts of volunteer work are needed to clean up the mess. I also don’t think that there is any real substitution for a habitation for marine life that occurs naturally in our oceans, because we cannot replicate, especially with tires, reefs that have been there for many years.
Source for article: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12247
paigegius08 said,
February 21, 2007 at 12:58 am
I remember reading about the clean-up efforts a few months ago. It’s a shame that the tires are harming the oceans they were meant to protect and help. Another camp story, (yes I know I leave comments with them a lot.) when we were out snorkling, our counselors told us to tell them if we happened to see any trash. The reason for them telling us wasn’t only so we wouldn’t touch anything dangerous in an attempt to clean up a little, but also so we wouldn’t disturb any animals who made a home out of the trash. One old bottle or boot might make a nice home for a crab or shrimp, but a lot of tires rolling around the ocean floor can only cause destruction. After all, fish aren’t going to be driving, so why do we need tires down there in the first place?
I got certified for SCUBA a few years ago and diving is one of my favorite things to do. I’ve got to admit though, rock reefs and sunken ships make better dive sites. I don’t go diving to see the same things sitting in my garage. So yes, I agree. The plan was well intentioned, but in the end it only damaged our beautiful and precious coral reefs. We as stewards of the earth need to think more about what we do and it’s potential effects, both negative and positive.
Abby said,
February 25, 2007 at 10:04 pm
The plan sounds like it was meant for good, but it didn;t end up that way unfortunately. I am not quite sure if they did sufficient research. Maybe they should have put the tires into a small lake or pond, something like that to see if the tires would actually work. It iss a shame that the government now has to spend money removing these tires from beaches when that money could have gone to something much more useful.