Installed already in Qatar, reef recovery time can be decreased from 50 to 100 years to 7 to 15 with these ceramic antler-like artificial reefs.
One of the great dilemmas for marine protected areas is ensuring marine ecosystems overcome issues related to “shifting baselines”: the extent to which marine areas have been driven from their “natural baseline state” due to anthropogenic activity and natural changes. Unfortunately, conservation plans often select baselines that already represent a disturbed state. The result is a continuous decline in ecosystem integrity, as next generations of managers resets their baseline to even lower marine ecological states. A partial solution to this is restoration – an active form of conservation. However coral reef restoration (either as coral reef art or ugly electric cages) been no easy task given the lengthy period of time it takes for corals to grow – between 0.06 to 3.9 cm a year.
Thankfully, a new product called EcoReef has been on the market and it is showing to be an effective coral reef restorer that could work for the Middle East reefs in the Gulf and the Red Sea.
