Posted on 10/30/2009 5:56:08 PM PDT by Halfmanhalfamazing
The oil platforms provide an unusual artificial reef for advanced divers.
*AHEM* jewfish Goliath grouper!
(Jewfish is apparently an offensive term now, and the documenters here obviously didn't get the memo)
Do we also have to change Black Grouper to African-Atlantic Grouper?
I heard one idea of putting a “skirt” around old oil rigs, the purpose of which would be to catch and deposit an increasing amount of inorganic material, slowly building to a steep peak, with the rig atop it. By that time, the rig would have decayed. But if designed well, the peak would continue to widen, creating an underwater island conducive to life.
Other things could be added, like scuttled ships, so that eventually a reef would start to form as well.
There is no Christianfish, evidently....
That would take FOREVER, even in 100ft water.
The idea is to let the ocean do most of the work. For example, one of the big problems with protected harbors is that they quickly collect silt. But oddly enough, the ancient Greeks built such a harbor that was self-cleaning.
A decade or so ago, someone discovered that an underwater cable with a low current going through it is very attractive to reef building corals, which are drawn to it and encase it in coral much faster than normal. Right now, there is an experiment off the coast of Africa with a cable grid attempting to rapidly create an artificial reef using this phenomenon.
Many other tricks can be used, to produce and drop bulk material below the coral depth. Granted, it will take decades, but once the process is self sustaining, who cares?
Do you have a link on that underwater cable?
.............So I can show it to others.
Saw it on TV a long time ago. Don’t know of any Internet links.
:-(
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