April 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 4   What's this?

The Trouble with Artificial Reefs

from the April, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

Subscriber Content Preview
Only active subscribers can view the whole article

Artificial reefs, created by deliberately sunk ships and other structures, may not be all they're cracked up to be, according to two American academics.

William Lindberg, a professor of fisheries science at the University of Florida, says that artificial reefs may actually hinder rather than improve levels of marine life in the surrounding area. His logic is that fish populations can be drawn to an artificial reef - and then be destroyed by fishermen who are drawn to the same place. "You can use them as a tool for economies," he told the Herald Tribune. You may be able to use them as a tool for ecological benefits, but you can't necessarily do both simultaneously with the same reef."...