"Free" Artificial Reefs: Poor Tools for Restoring Coral Reefs

What about conventional artificial reefs?

What do they actually accomplish in terms of coral reef rehabilitation?

It is not uncommon for artificial reefs to be made from free "materials of opportunity" such as donated ships, cars, tires, or demolition concrete. Although often installed in temperate waters to improve sportfishing and recreational diving, these artificial reefs are not appropriate for the rehabilitation of damaged coral reefs for a variety of reasons:

• Sinking of ships, cars, scrap metal, concrete or other materials of opportunity on coral reefs does little to restore living coral cover.
  

• Materials like construction-grade concrete and scrap metal are chemically reactive in seawater and interfere with coral settlement and growth.
  

• Shapes with large void spaces primarily function to aggregate adult fish, which can allow important brood stocks to be easily fished out.
  

• Because conventional artificial reefs don't provide complex, fine-scale habitat for juvenile fish and herbivorous fish, they do little to restock depleted reef fisheries and often become covered with fast-growing algae that can smother and kill young corals.
  

• Expensive and cumbersome to install, conventional artificial reefs usually end up as small-scale, token deployments that fail to have any significant impact on fish and coral reproduction rates.
  

• Conventional artificial reefs often result in bizarre underwater eyesores of astonishing durability -- a poor choice for dive resorts and marine sanctuaries with excellent water visibility.
  
  

To many ecologists and conservationists, conventional artificial reefs represent a form of marine pollution with no ecological benefit.

To many divemasters and hotel owners, conventional artificial reefs are unattractive and a poor ecotourism investment.

EcoReefs Compared to "Free" Artificial Reefs

EcoReefs beats artificial reefs made from free materials of opportunity in comparisons of potential ecological benefits, impact on tourism, and ease and cost of deployment.