Scuba Dive

Now that Florida has finally gotten around to sinking the Vandenburg, their planned string of successful artificial reefs is complete. Recently I ran across an article discussing the cleanup of a failed 1970’s attempt at creating an artificial reef using that little known reef building material, used tires. I began to wonder: is all this artificial reef creation good, or are we just rationalizing our practice of throwing junk into the sea?

The available information base on artificial reefs is almost endless. But, from what I can tell, people claim four main purposes for artificial reefs:
Financial
a. “Dismantling my old boat will cost too much. Instead, I will throw it in the ocean and pretend not to notice when it sinks.”
b. “I have no reef, but I hear it generates income. Let’s get one!”
Environmental
a. “That hurricane/cruise liner/glowing green factory goo destroyed my reef. Help!”
b. “My shorefront property just became a houseboat. Where did my beach go?”
Sport
a. “Cool, dude! I need gnarly wave action for surfing.”
b. “Cool, divemaster! I need great reef action for diving.”
Accidental
a. “Oops, iceberg.”
b. “Well, that landing strip was shorter than I thought.”

And, from what I can tell, artificial reefs are made of a few different materials:
1. Manmade stuff – Wrecks, train cars, airplanes, cars, dump trucks, and the occasional toaster
2. Reef promoting materials – Rocks, odd manufactured products like reef balls
3. All else –Items placed for a purpose other than promoting reef growth, such as bulwarks and Hoffa

I now realize that the question of artificial reefs being good or bad is not straightforward.  The success of the reef seems to be a combination of both the purpose and the material.

Some examples:
#1
Purpose: Mobile Bay homeowners desire Environmental shoreline protection
Materials: “All Else” flat bulwarks that actually dissuaded marine growth
Result: Got our beach back, but ruined the fish population

#2
Purpose: Surfer Dudes at Pratte’s Reef in El Segundo need waves
Materials: Reef promoting rocks
Result: The rock promptly sank into the sea floor leaving flat water and a large bill

#3
Purpose: Aruba had an extra airplane all dressed up but nowhere to fly
Materials: 60 ft long YS-11 previously owned by Air Aruba
Result: Promising evidence of coral and fish “Movin’ On Up”

So now I realize I can’t pass judgment on artificial reefs as a whole, but need to measure success individually.  For every tire cleanup story there is a successful artificial reef just waiting for fish and divers to come and play.