Artificial reefs help preserve coral reefs by shifting divers away from the natural ones, according to new long-term study in the Red Sea
If you were lucky to dive into the Red Sea 25 years ago the undersea life was much different to today where Red Sea coral reefs have turned brown, and corals are dead and dying. Busy shipping lanes in the Red Sea, pollution, sunscreen, extra lights and global warming are leading to the decline of Red Sea coral.
When Green Prophet visited Egypt’s national park, Ras Abu Galum in Sinai, this past fall, beginner snorkelers from Egypt and around the world crowded through a small entry point and at every point of the couple of hours that we were there, snorkelers were standing on the reef.
This, researchers hope, can stop – if they make more artificial reefs for snorkelers and divers to play on –– allowing the natural reefs to recover. Divers are essentially tourists who truly love coral reefs and invest a lot of time and effort to watch them. But divers also cause damage to corals, often unintentionally, through disturbing and re-suspending sand, touching them, hitting them with their equipment, and scaring fish away.
Artificial reefs have been proposed as a means of diverting diving pressure from the natural reef to alternative sites, thus preserving both dive tourism and the coral reef.
The problem was noticed years ago in Eilat, Israel on the Red Sea and, as a result, in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority, Prof. Nadav Shashar of Ben-Gurion University’s Marine Biology and Biotechnology Program and the OBS company, an artificial reef was established there on the border of the nature reserve enclosing the natural coral reefs.
The artificial reef was established in 2006 and, in 2007, corals, which were grown in a special coral nursery, were planted on it. Since then, it has attracted many species of reef fish and other invertebrates that are difficult to find on the natural reef.
The new long-term study, just published in Oceans, tracked the movement of dives before and after the placement of the reef. Before its installation, the introductory diving instructors had to lead their trainees into the reserve to enjoy the dive. However, afterwards, it became a magnet for divers, especially guided dives, and introductory dives. Since introductory dives to the natural coral reefs in the reserve have almost completely stopped.
What’s more, the reef remains as attractive as ever 15 years after its installation, thus deciding the question of whether an artificial site would be attractive even after it was no longer a novelty.
