October 10, 2022
News Story
by Tara Malhotra
Coral reefs are dying. 3,582 reefs located in 87 countries have lost half of their coral since the 1950s. The number of reef fish caught has gone down by 60 percent, according to a 2021 One Earth Organization study. What could possibly solve these problems? A box.
According to environmental experts, coral reefs are a necessity. They reduce the impact of storms and sustain the environment by creating food webs, resulting in more variety of marine life. Also, in many communities, locals rely on reefs for food and a source of income. As the reefs deteriorate, there are fewer fish to eat and the fish that can still be caught are not as nutritious.
Dr. Dawn Roje, a biology teacher, explained the integral role that reefs play in our environment.
“We need to save coral reefs because we know that healthy ecosystems, ones that can adapt to a changing climate, are biodiverse ones. Losing coral reefs means we lose the hundreds of species of fishes and invertebrates that depend on the reefs for their own survival,” Roje said.
One solution to this problem is offered by a nonprofit organization called the Reef Doctor: creating artificial reefs. In 2016, the Reef Doctor got together with local fishermen in Madagascar to build synthetic reefs in the Bay of Ranobe. These fake reefs were made from limestone and looked like a pile of rocks on the seafloor. Reef Doctor saw results after five years of this experiment, as slugs, sponges, and other reef creatures had moved into the limestone.
Though this was a promising start, reefs are intricate networks that desire biodiversity, and achieving this takes many years. However, a new experiment is testing whether reef growth can be accelerated. Devised by Aaron Hartmann, a marine biologist at Harvard University, the artificial reefs are planted with Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS). The ARMS are boxes constructed from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a form of plastic.
In the past, ARMS have mostly been used for monitoring reef biodiversity. Hartmann’s plan is to use them to jumpstart the fake reefs. For a year, these are attached to the bottom of the ocean near healthy reefs to collect tiny organisms. After the ARMS are full, they are placed on the limestone reefs. This approach will be tested in six artificial reefs by placing ARMS in three of them and seeing if those ones attract more fish.
These reefs support ocean life and the locals. By providing a home for fish, they can preserve species and ecosystems. In addition, for the coastal populations, they provide a source of food security and safety. As fishing has become scarce, fishermen have to go further out to sea, which is risky. If the closer reefs are thriving, fishermen can stay around the shore and have enough fish to eat.
Dr. Sabrina Erickson, an advanced Placement Environmental Science teacher, described the positive impact of coral reefs.
“Coral reefs are important because they are ecosystems for diverse aquatic life—thousands of species live in coral reefs. They protect our coasts from erosion and storm damage as they absorb wave energy, and they also help the economy through tourism and fishing,” Erickson said.
Even if these artificial reefs are successful, they still have drawbacks. They are vulnerable to rising water temperatures and higher acid levels in the ocean due to climate change; these conditions can cause mass bleaching which kills both the real and fake reefs. Moreover, synthetic reefs could be destroyed by humans’ overfishing and pollution.
Despite these potential flaws, artificial reefs may have a number of benefits for conservation, human health, and economic development. If Hartmann’s experiment is successful, it may provide a way to catapult reef rescues.
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