EcoSystems

Artificial reefs are a great tool for enhancing the marine environment, but the correct tool must be used to achieve the desired result. Not all artificial reefs produce the same result.

When artificial reef building became popular in the late 1980's, people began using anything as an artificial reef. Over the years researchers learned that not all artificial reefs are good for the environment, nor do they produce the same result. Some help the environment and increase the fishery, while others do the opposite. 

Some of the lessons learned:

1. PH of material should be identical to seawater. If it is not, some marine life will be excluded from the reef causing an unbalanced ecosystem. Concrete alone is a poor artificial reef material. Attempts have been made to balance the PH in the concrete mixture, but it is never perfect. 

2. Complexity (rugosity) is important if the goal is to enhance estuary. Small marine animals and juvenile fish need small places to protect themselves from predators until they have grown enough to survive on their own.  

3. The taller the reef unit is from the bottom the better it works. The bottom meter of a reef is subject to sand abrasion and/or suffocating silt and little life can survive there. Red Tide outbreaks in Florida kill all the marine life it contacts, but researchers have found that Red Tide is denser than seawater and did not affect marine life above 2 meters.

4. The bottom of the ocean is fluid and the reef must have a device to keep it upright and prevent movement in storm events

    6. Building a reef with a short term life does little for the long term solution.

In Summary, artificial reefs should be chosen on the basis of long term enhancement of the oceans resources.