A Good Thing or Just More Junk in the Ocean?
260-foot Cargo Ship Becomes Palm Beach County's Newest Artificial Reef
Known lately as the Korimu, the 260-foot cargo ship became another artificial reef off the coast of Palm Beach County on Friday after the county's Department of Environmental Resources Management sank it nearly three miles northeast of the Lake Worth Inlet.
"There's no evidence that those kinds of reefs increase the productivity of fish," said David White, the Southeast Atlantic regional director of the Ocean Conservancy, which promotes ocean protection. "They leave their natural habitats and go there, so it's good for fisherman, but not necessarily good for the fish."
During the 15 years the county has run the artificial reef program, it has created more than 60 artificial reefs from sunken vessels and created mitigation reefs, made from limestone boulders or concrete, in the Lake Worth Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee, Bates said.
Though Palm Beach County Surfrider Foundation director Tom Warnke said artificial reefs could also create a draw for tourism, he warned against mitigation reefs, which are usually built to compensate for the loss of inshore reefs by a dredge or beach renourishment project.
"The artificial reef program the county has is a model for the rest of the country," he said. "[This ship] has created an interesting dive."
More
posted by Surfrider Foundation at 4:22 PM
2 Comments:
More Junk! The South Florida Chapter has been in contact with several organizations and many individuals that now want to install "ARTificial," reefs very near the surf zone at South Pointe, which is South Beaches only EXCELLENT surf break...well when we get waves that is BUT HAY!
Tourism promoters like it because they become a snorkeling destination when the "corals begin to grow they can also act as mitigation to destroyed natural reefs." DON'T BELIEVE IT! Coral will NOT grow in that environment. Catherine Bliss, marine biologist from RSMAS questions whether the water column is too silty from all the dredge projects rebuilding the ARTifial beach for corals to grow. They are also being called stabilization reefs too.
There is a local organization that is promoting art in nature as a way to bring attention to the degradation of natural places. They wanted us to get involved in the ARTificial reef program for South Pointe and our members attended their meeting and clearly stated "Anything you do near our surf zone, we will fight to the DEATH!" They got the message and are backing off but BEWARE one of these will be making an appearance at a beach near you!
Wyatt Porter-Brown
I can't believe Surfrider Foundation supports sinking ships into the ocean. Boo!!!
I'll be donating elsewhere from now on!
Post a Comment
<< Home